Battlestar Therion: Surviving destruction
by Hooah134
Summary: Following the destruction of the twelve Colonies during the cylon attack, The Battlestar Therion attempts to survive while mustering what few remnants of the colonial fleet are left
1. Chapter 1

_Okay, I decided to rewrite the story based off of the original, revised a few things here and there added a bit there and here you go. Story's basically the same. Side note: I do not own anything but the names. Battlestar Galactica is the property of its respected owner not me!_

COLONIAL BINARY SYSTEM 33 DAYS BEFORE THE ATTACK

As silent as a hunter stalking its prey the massive Colonial Third Fleet slid through the empty space near the Cyrannus asteroid belt. In total there were 250 ships assigned, all heavily armed and well protected by layer upon layer of defenses. Each one designed to be better than the one behind it. For the last six years the Colonial Fleet had begun a massive buildup of arms. Despite limited budget cuts on certain expenditures, the buildup had continued. President Adar had refused to specify his reasons for the buildup but as long as the quorum supported him people didn't question his decision.

For just a month now the Third Fleet had been undergoing a training exercise ordered by Admiral Nagala, half the fleet didn't have the CNP systems installed, it was here that Nagala planned to prove to the Admiralty that Fleet efficiency didn't suffer without the CNP.

As the battlestar Atlantia, the flagship of Admiral Nagala, fired its weapons at targets down range. The battlestar Achilles was maneuvering away from the fleet to simulate boarding action. Another twenty six battlestars and two hundred other ships were engaged in mock battles, as vipers dogfighted all around the massive ships. Raptors were recording every second of the massive war game, for analysis later. Over the Colony of Caprica the peace and beauty of the planet seemed almost unreal as ships came and went.

28 DAYS LATER

DELPHI CITY CAPRICA

A young woman by the name of Haley Aaron slowly rose from her seat on the charter bus that was taking her home to her family. She hadn't seen them in over three months since the Therion had been ordered to take part in Nagala's war games. She couldn't wait to see her nephew Scott. He was just seven years old, son to her older sister Amy. The two sisters were closer than most sisters their age having gone through things most people never have or ever will. Haley had graduated from the fleet training academy with top honors; her sister had graduated eight years ahead of her but was impressed with her ability to lead. Her sister was currently assigned to the battlestar Olympic as the ships Tactical Officer. Haley had chosen to fly Raptors, to the surprise of no one who knew her well.

As the bus stopped outside her stop she paid the driver and stepped off. She immediately heard the shouts of her nephew Scott as he ran up to her and hugged her. Laughing she gracefully picked him up and kissed his cheek, making the boy smile ear to ear.

"I missed you Aunt Haley, hurry up! Come on! Come on! We got pizza. With everything on it too!" Said Scott as he tugged at her arm dragging her along.

"Okay, okay I'm coming" said Haley as she hugged her sister.

The ride to her sister's house where her dad was staying was filled with smiles, laughs and for seven year old Scott lots of tickling from his favorite Aunt.

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP WAR PIG - 12 MILES OUTSIDE DELPHI

"OORAH!" shouted the Marines as they continued their deadly game of marsh pit. Soon over two companies of men were involved in the brutal game. Many would later find themselves in the Emergency room for minor cuts and bruises. When asked why the Brass never bothered to stop the deadly game they had only one response: You'd have to be a Marine to understand the kind of bond beating each other up creates.

General Stanley Griggs watched as his Marines continued on with their game. As he turned to go inside he couldn't help but remember when he too had played those games. Despite the war when he was a young lieutenant he loved to be in the field with his troops. The moments when all was quiet before a battle were the perfect moments for that very game. It was a feeling of letting loose and getting to beat the shit out of anyone you didn't like, as long as it wasn't too bad. He had loved carrying the rucksack on his back, but more importantly he loved wearing the uniform. He loved what it represented.

As the general walked inside waiting by the entrance to his office was an agent from the Military center for Intelligence. The MCI agent stood up and shook his hand and said in a very serious voice heavy with experience.

"General we have a lot to talk about so let's get to it."

"After you their young man" Said the 58 year old General wishing he was a young lieutenant again.

CAPRICAN FLEET SHIPYARDS - 6 DAYS UNTIL THE CYLON ATTACK

The hulls of the mighty ships could be seen as they lay in their docks, some were to receive the upgrade to the CNP while other acting on Admiral Nagala's strict orders weren't. Of the 367 ships in the Third fleet 110 now had the CNP. Admiral Nagala was taking steps to ensure that number didn't climb and most importantly reduce. Doctor Gauis Baltar had accused him of being afraid of computers, and wanting to keep the Colonies in the Stone Age and finally a coward. The whole fleet knew it was only because he was losing almost twenty billion cubits as a result of the Third Fleets numbers. Admiral Tolls of the Fifth fleet was rumored to be considering the same thing, much to Baltar's fright. The mistrust of a Networked computer system ran deep in the veterans of the Cylon war.

The Atlantia, pride of the Colonial fleet and flagship of Admiral Nagala, disembarked from its moors and began to head for Virgon, the Atlantia while based at the Third fleet headquarters at the Virgos shipyards had stopped at Caprica with the Fourth fleet to refuel and give its crew some shore leave.

In six days it would be at Virgon and would resume its duties as a Flagship.

Aboard the Atlantia Admiral Nagala sat in his quarters and read the latest report from the black-ops unit known as Delta team. Officially the unit didn't exist. There were no records of them paper or electronic. They operated under the guise of system mapping and exploration. In their last mission they had tracked a Cylon raider to what they believed to be a staging area for a potential cylon invasion, their report had him worried. A total of twenty four baseships were there. The report had immediately set off alarms throughout the military, but after a nearly three hour meeting with the president, he had simply ordered them to remain vigilant and keep an eye on them. Nagala suspected he was scared that if they upped their alert levels accordingly the Cylons would suspect a Unit had crossed the line and gained some sort of useful Intelligence, and they would respond with an attack

**5 days later**

A Young Marine Specialist walked into the chow hall and sat down with his friends for Taco night

A Nurse stitched a Marines cut as she flirted with him.

A female reporter reported the decommissioning ceremony of the Galactica was due to take place tomorrow.

A woman went jogging in the park.

A Pilot waves goodbye to her Nephew as she loads up to return to her ship.

A young boy looks up into the night sky and wonders if the cylons will ever come back.

An Admiral lies down to sleep and wonders if he'll awake the next day.

CAPRICAN FLEET SHIPYARDS - 4 HRS BEFORE THE ATTACK

The 29th Expeditionary unit of the Colonial Fourth Fleet had been ordered to rendezvous at a position near the Armistice line. All 28 ships were there except the Columbia still at Virgon. The battlestar Solaria was the lead ship.

The only ships at the Caprican Fleet shipyards were independent units that operated on their own. Mostly cutters and orbital defense units permanently assigned to the colonies

Soon the colonial space lanes were filled with traffic as the system wide holiday weekend began despite the teachers strike and the flooding on Canceron.

COLONIAL BATTLESTAR THREION BSG -52 ETA TO ZERO HOUR - 2 HOURS

Lieutenant Haley Aaron silently waited for the hatch to open. Just returning from a three day shore leave, she couldn't wait to get back in the cockpit. She was a raptor pilot herself but she preferred to be the one flying the raptor not the passenger. Her call sign Star was because of how much she loved to look at the Stars when she was flying, ever since her days at the Athenian academy on Caprica she had dreamed of being a pilot and six months ago she had made that dream come true. Her fellow pilots loved to pit themselves against her as she was one of the best raptor pilots in the fleet.

"Hey Star, heard you were back aboard, care for a game of cards later on?" Said her ECO Lt Michael "Hunter" Wilson

"Sure as soon as I get my stuff put up" She said as she smiled. She was glad to finally be back

"Well hurry up, you know it's not the same without you in there kicking everyone's ass!"

She laughed and said "You all would be hopelessly lost without me!"

CIC

As the CIC crew went about their business, the room snapped to attention when the Marine guard at the door yelled

"Commander on deck!"

"As you were. Lieutenant Forsen what's our status?" Asked the commander Jason Griggs was a legend among the fleet, while he hadn't seen combat during the Cylon war, he had seen it against pirates and smugglers even terrorist. He had organized the massive colonial military offensive against the SLA 2 years previous that had resulted in the Capture of Tom Zarek. He was probably the most relaxed commander in the fleet in regards to regulations and Military law. Yet his ship was by far the best in the fleet. His crew was loyal to him to the point that they would follow him to hell if they had too. Not a single member of the Therion crew hated their Commander, while his punishments were strict; he emphasized the fleet values of Teamwork, Loyalty and Honor. He was greatly respected by both his crew and his peers. His loyalty to the fleet had cost him his first wife, and with her his first child. He had married again and he and his wife had two children both were preparing to enter the fleet academy. His family including his ex-wife was on Vacation aboard Cloud 5 near Gemenon.

"Ship is fully armed, stocked and loaded to the brim with fuel sir. We are cleared for departure." Said Lieutenant Amy Forsen with her best 'I knew what you were going to ask' voice. She had been on the Therion for five months but she had become the best Tactical officer the Therion had ever had. She had graduated with honors from War College. The Therion was her first assignment out of War College and she was excelling at it. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a bun behind her. At 5'11 she was taller than the average woman. Her sleek athletic form toned by years of swimming, running and playing pyramid. She loved her Job more than anything in the world. She loved her CO to the point where she viewed him almost as a god. The whole crew did.

"Very well, Helm's take us out for our shakedown cruise." ordered the Commander as the ship gracefully slid out of its dock. After undergoing a refit to install new systems, excluding the CNP per Nagala's orders, she had been renovated. Her turrets were now larger packing a much more powerful slug that was capable of tearing through the Armor of the most advanced ships in the fleet. The Mercury's. The Therion had been commissioned as a Mercury class, but the renovation had made her almost a completely different class. On the outside the differences were hard to see unless you put another Mercury class battlestar right next to her. You would see the bow was 134 meters longer than standard Mercury's. She carried four extra Dual Kinetic Energy weapons on her bow, center exactly where they could deliver the most firepower. In addition to the bow being longer, the Therion's flight pods were larger, as to accompany two extra Marine drop ships. Each battlestar had four on each flight pod but the Therion had six. She carried a massive air wing composed of 280 vipers with 75 raptors. Her crew compliment numbered just over 4,300.

PICON- ZERO HOUR- THE FALL

The massive shipyards know to the Colonies as Picon Fleet Headquarters was an eye catching sight.

With eighteen battlestars docked at it. It was by far the biggest shipyard in all of the Colonies. Fleet Admiral Corman was in his office reading a report about the Fourth fleets deployment which he hadn't authorized. He grew increasingly angry as he continued to read just where they had been sent.

"Captain, get me Admiral Nagala please" he said in a way that made the young woman tremble.

"Yes Sir" Said Captain Paige Terrence as she walked away to carry out the Admiral's orders. She had been hand selected by the Admiral to be her aide and she had rarely seen him as mad as he was now.

As she went to carry out her orders she was thrown to the floor by a massive explosion. The Admiral was thrown into his desk and was incapacitated instantly, the Young Captain tried to move to her fallen Admiral as explosions enveloped the Shipyards. As she looked out the window towards the shipyard she could only stare in shock.

A Valkyrie class battlestar was split in two drifting out of control, Vipers and Raiders were everywhere. Most of the Vipers however began to lose power and drift right towards the Cylons.

Of the eighteen battlestars that had been docked, only eight were now firing at the Cylons. The other ten were adrift, destroyed or heavily damaged. She saw a whole section of the shipyard break away and fall towards a basestar. As she tried to stand up to get to the admiral and administer first aid, her leg collapsed, and she realized it was broke just as a steel beam collapsed over her waist, pinning her against the wall. In vain she tried to move out from under as more and more explosions occurred all around her.

Outside it was chaos, the Civilians were desperately trying to get away from the carnage and wreckage that was once Picon Fleet headquarters, soon FTL flashes began to envelope the Colony as hundreds of Civilian ships jumped away. Thousands of battles began in the area surrounding Picon as the Cylons moved away from the Shipyards and engaged the defense fleet. On the surface the Marines were springing into action, their response almost instant, not needing confirmation of what was happening. The appearance of dozens of miniature suns told the Generals all they needed to know. Rushing to set up defensive batteries in the cities, the Marines were moving at a speed never before seen. Their efforts were for nothing as the nukes would start to fall in mere hours.

Thousands of Vipers and raptors of the Picon defense fleet roared up into space. The cylons however were shocked to find the CNP ineffective on them. The home defense fleet had never purchased the CNP. The battle of Picon began, with the opening bombardment of Picon fleet headquarters which was now being boarded by the cylons as the shipyards defenses had been defeated. Of the eight battlestars that hadn't been destroyed or disabled in the initial attack, only four remained. Those four heavily damaged battlestars were desperately trying to regroup with the defense fleets forty cruisers and establish a defensive battle line to allow for reinforcement to arrive. None would.

Over Caprica it was a different story, the shipyard hadn't been under control of the CNP. The moment the baseships appeared on DRADIS, the KEW's opened up with a ferocity never before seen by the cylons, of the sixteen battlestars over Caprica, six were disabled by the CNP virus. The vipers and Raptors of the defense fleet were soon all over the atmosphere and surrounding space around Caprica. The Third fleet was the only unit not suffering major loses. Soon after the Acropolis jumped in the cylons were forced to fall back, even though the Defense network was down, the fleets over Caprica and Virgon were giving the cylons hell. The Columbia, flagship of Admiral Green, was soon destroyed. Dozens of baseships were now at Caprica. While there were only nineteen battlestars, some had jumped in when they had received the attack warning, they were fighting as hard as they could. Altogether almost 256 Military vessels were engaged in combat with the cylons, the vapor trails of the explosions in orbit were clear for all to see. None doubted what was happening, the Military was fighting desperately to give the Government time to make decisions and issue orders.

The Government was in chaos, the president was being evacuated to a military bunker north of Caprica city. While the Marines and Army was moving into positions to repel any potential invasion. Soon the spaceports were being overrun with people. Almost six million people were now taking to the skies as they attempted to escape the carnage that was sure to come.

BATTLESTAR THERION 2 HOURS FROM VIRGON

With the alarms blaring and the Marines rushing to get to anti-boarder positions, the Secretary of Defense didn't know what was going on. The crew members were sprinting to their action stations. A dozen pilots ran by heading for the hanger deck. As he walked into the corridor with the Joint Chiefs following he was knocked down by a heavily armed Marine Fire team moving to an airlock. He could clearly tell something wasn't right. The Joint Chiefs were looking around attempting to find an officer to tell them what was going on. They had all been aboard for a demonstration of the new weapons system so they could decide whether to install it on all of the Mercury's. Suddenly the voice of Commander Riggs came over the PA

"Attention this is the commander, moments ago this ship received word… that a Cylon attack is underway. At this time we do not know the size or strength of the enemy forces but all indications point to a massive assault on all colonial defenses throughout the system. With Picon fleet headquarters destruction in the opening wave of the cylon assault, admiral Nagala has assumed complete command of the entire fleet…. I know that you're scared, that you're worried about your families. I am too. But now isn't the time to think about that. We have a job to do. Lives depend on us to do our jobs and do them well. It is our duty to the colonies to defend them from this very thing. Remember your training, remain loyal to this ship and trust the men and women next to you, for this ship and its crew are about to bring some steel rain to those Toasters! So say we All."

The crew repeated the chant until the Commander told them to prepare for a combat jump to Virgon.

As the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs made their way to CIC they couldn't help but notice just how proficient the crew was, the Marines were standing at the ready, they could hear the ships massive gun turrets swiveling in prepositioned firing points.

VIRGON

With a flash the Battlestar Therion appeared in orbit over Virgon, just as the Atlantia rammed a baseship, sending debris into the battlestar.

Commander Riggs was flown into the glass window of the CIC. Lieutenant Forsen was thrown to the ground hitting her head on the tactical station as she fell to ground. The XO Colonel Sean Branson managed to avoid the fall by bracing his hand on the navigation table. As he looked around at the CIC he saw most of the CIC crew if not all were unconscious and clearly wounded. He looked at the DRADIS and saw a horrifying sight. There were twelve green dots on the screen, surrounded by twenty three more red dots representing Cylon baseships.

The Atlantia had bought the Therion a small amount of time to escape. She had plowed into the basestar that had been leading the cylon attack over Virgon. Thus causing utter chaos and confusion in the cylons ranks. They quickly adapted and another ship assumed the role as the command vessel. As they began to reorganize the twelve green dots representing five Colonial battlestars, four heavy cruisers and three colonial destroyers, jumped away leaving the Therion as the only Colonial Military ship left over Virgon. Five baseships began to head for the Therion, recognizing the ship as the only threat left over the once pristine world, with their raider wings already moving in for the devastating attack that would kill the Therion.

Tears started to swell around the Colonels eyes as he realized that Virgon was lost. He silently walked over to the Tactical station and looked at the screen. The flight pods had lost all power preventing the Vipers from being launched. Four of their engines were off line. But to his amazement the FTL drive was still online. He knew his time was limited. The forward batteries were firing at the nearest baseship, but he knew they wouldn't make much of a difference. As another missile struck the ship, he struggled to press the red button that would make the ship jump.

Despite another dozen explosions he managed to press it. The ship commenced a blind jump and landed itself near the Cyrannus asteroid belt.

The Therion was heavily damaged; the flight pods had limited if any power, most of the ship was cut off from the rest by fallen ceilings, steel beams and sealed hatches that wouldn't open due to pressure loss that was a result of disconnected wires and false reading. It would take engineering over four hours to restore most systems and unseal all the Hatches that had been falsely sealed.

Soon the crew learned through the fleet comm. Traffic that Commander Adama had assumed complete command of the remnants of the fleet and had ordered a regroup at Ragnar anchorage. Of the ship's crew of over 4,000 over eleven hundred had been lost. The Commander and six hundred more of the crew were wounded. Only two hundred and fifty fortunately had life threatening wounds. While the CO was down as was most of the senior staff Colonel Branson was busy organizing the ships repairs. He had steered the ship into the asteroid field in an attempt to avoid detection. The battle was still waging at Caprica, but he knew the Colonial forces there could only hold out for so long. He knew his ship had no chance of getting into the fight as it was. The flight pods were still without power as a piece of the Atlantia had severed the energizer that supplied power to the pods. Another piece of debris had impacted the alligator head of the ship opening up 12 sections to space.

STARBOARD FLIGHT POD - THERION- FOUR HOURS AFTER THE JUMP.

Lieutenant Marissa " Butterfly" Stas had been sitting in her viper for the last four hours due to the power outage. Initially she had thought the ship had been destroyed but the deck gang could be heard outside the Blast doors working furiously to get the power back on. She could hear their voices as they reassured each of the pilots that it would be okay and they'd have the power back on soon.

Lt. Stas had joined the fleet right out of high school, as soon as she had finished basic she was chosen by Commander Riggs to be a viper trainee aboard the Therion, Riggs had a talent for spotting natural viper pilots and Marissa was one of them. She had some trouble her first couple of weeks, with other recruits that kept trying to get with her, but that ended after a rather embarrassing kick to the groin to one of them. She was exceptionally beautiful, having won too many beauty contests to name. When she had told her father she enlisted he had been furious, all she had done was laugh in his face and say a bunch of stuff about honor and how he would never understand her decision. Her dad had been divorced for over eight years and he was never with a woman for more than five months. She had distanced herself from her family for several reasons, the biggest being they didn't support her decision to enlist.

After nearly eight hours of sitting in her cockpit, the power was soon restored. The engineering crew had been forced to use the auxiliary main energizer. The one that supplied power to the flight pods was a smaller one designed to reduce the strain on the primary energizers, the Therion boasted an enhanced DRADIS package that required more power to operate. Thus the smaller Energizer for the flight pods was built into the ship.

CIC 5 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACKS

"Okay so most of the pilots are out of their cockpits and are getting some rest. So that's one good thing, but we just received word from our listening raptor. Caprica has been lost. The cylons have now started bombarding the surface with nuclear ordnance. All of the colonies themselves have been hit with at least a hundred Nukes. Picon, Virgon and Gemenon have been hit with as much as three hundred." Said Ensign James Hastings who was filling in for the unconscious Lt. Forsen.

"My gods…. the Cylons are trying to annihilate us" stated the CAG Major Jessica "angel" Burton.

"Looks that way. Alright our first objective is to find out where the remaining colonial forces have retreated to, we know not all of the fleet was destroyed, hell the entire 5th fleet wasn't even in the fight. That's twenty five battlestars right there. Plus other units that made the rendezvous at Ragnar Anchorage. We know the Galactica and at least seventy civilian ships plus twelve other military vessels made the rendezvous." said Colonel Branson as his eyes darted from person to person

"Where are the SECDEF and Joint Chiefs?" Asked Branson

"They were wounded when a section collapsed near them sir. They're in pretty bad shape" Said Harris as he found the right report

"Okay when their conscious I want to see them" Said the Colonel as he read off more reports.

"First things first we need to find the Fifth fleet, chances are they don't even know about the attack, I mean the time it would take for one single report to reach them at the distance is at least a day." said Angel

"It's been over 25 hours since the attack, chances are by now they know, who's to say they weren't the first unit to be destroyed." said the Colonel still reading reports strewn all across the tactical console.

"Well we can't assume they were Colonel! Chances are the remnants of the Fleet are attempting to reorganize and launch a counterattack as we speak. We need to get back out there!" Said Commander Riggs as he stood heavily leaning on a cane in the glass doorway that leads to the CIC. A Marine stood at his side helping him when the need arose.

"Sir are you sure you should be out of Sickbay?" asked the CAG

"Don't question my ability to perform my duties Captain. I'm perfectly capable of doing them. If you want to question my ability to lead maybe we should go over your latest performance reports. Now what's the status of our vipers?" asked the Commander as he limped over to the Nav table. His voice and tone was that of a man with pure anger and rage. The crew was shocked, never had the Commander used a tone like the one he had just used on the CAG.

"All good to go sir" Stated the CAG her voice one of a child that had just been scolded for the first time, the Commander had never spoke to any member of the senior staff in a tone like the one he had used on her.

"Helm's bring us out of the asteroid field. Plot us a jump to Ragnar anchorage, while we may be battered we're still in this fight." said the Commander his eyes glassy and still watery

SICKBAY

Lt Forsen gently started to open her eyes; the first thing she noticed was the Marine in the bed right next to hers. He had cuts in his face and was unconscious. As she started to lift herself up, a nurse appeared out of nowhere and said

"Lay back down Ma'am. You took quite a hit to your head; I'm surprised your even awake right now much less not in pain."

"Who said I wasn't in pain Doc?" answered Forsen who's head felt like hammers were beating against it. She heard a constant ringing in her hears that was giving her a massive headache and her hand was at the least sprained.

"I'll get you something for the pain ma'am." Said the nurse as she walked away to tend to other patients. Her stomach growled as she realized she hadn't eaten in a long time.

In walked Lieutenant Casey "Charger" Hast. While she would never admit it she actually liked the man. He was charming, strong and was probably one of the best Vipers sticks on the ship.

"Hey I heard you got hurt up in CIC, You Okay there Amy?" said 'Charger' his voice sounded of worry and sympathy. He was obviously worried.

Amy couldn't help but smile at his concern. She had grown to like him over the last five months.

"Yeah, just a concussion probably, I'll be fine. Thanks for asking though." she replied not wanting to sound weak.

"Okay… but if you need anything don't hesitate to ask okay?" said the young Lieutenant as he walked towards one of his wounded pilots who had suffered a concussion when the flight pods had lost power.

"Oh you can count on that. Can you start by getting me some food please?" Said Amy giving her best smile. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast the day of the cylons initial assault, which had been over 15 hours ago.

Casey just smiled and said "Sure thing, just let me talk to my pilot over here."

CAPRICA 18 HOURS AFTER THE INTIAL ATTACK

Everywhere as far as the eye could see there was smoke, bullets were flying all around as the Centurions advanced up the street. The 23rd Marine Division (Light) had been fighting for almost nine hours straight. Ever since the cylons had landed, they had launched only small scale counterattacks and had given very little ground. General Stanley Griggs was proud of his Marines; they had done their duty as best as anyone could ask for. With over 60 percent of his division gone. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the end came for him and his men. But he knew that for every inch the cylons took from them they were paying with dozens of Centurions. What shocked him most were the humans, or what he had initially thought were humans, that were leading the Cylon army. It wasn't until his snipers reported they were killing dozens of the same person that he realized it. The cylons could mimic human form. He knew the end was near but there were still millions of people left in Delphi alone and he was determined to give them as much time as possible to flee into the hills. He could see the Marine Vipers that were flying up against the raiders and while they were winning now, he knew that once again it was only a matter of time. But he also knew that this was when he was the most dangerous. The cylons knew it too.

OUTSIDE OF DELPHI CYLON COMMAND CENTER

"Gods dammed humans, why can't our centurions defeat the 23rd Division, if the 47th Marine Division breaks out of the containment zone we have for them before our artillery can be brought to bear it's only a matter of time before they can successfully disengage and once that happens, we'll have a counter-insurgency on our hands and that's not a kind of war we want to wage. This will frak up our plans so frakking much." Said the number one known as John Cavil, he was clearly infuriated at the reports constantly coming in.

"We can't allow this, if it were any other city I would say let's just nuke them but we don't have that option here." said the model known as Leoben Conoy

"We can't allow the 47th to reach the 23rd if that happens it will be a disaster." stated the blonde model known as number six, her face clearly showing concern. This was not going according to their plans.

But one thing the cylons didn't know was that the 13th Marine heavy division and the 18th Marine division (light) were maneuvering into position to launch a massive counterattack against the cylon four division sized force that was threatening Delphi. In less than thirty minutes they moved in to position using the smoke that the burning woods were giving off as cover from airborne detection.

General Hector Gorton was one of the best Marine Corps generals in all of the Colonies. Due to the fact that the cylons had encountered extremely heavy resistance over Caprica it had allowed the Marines on the surface time to position themselves to best fend off a potential invasion, they had no illusion an hour into the battle that Caprica could be held. The fleet in orbit had simply taken too many loses at the time. Once the remaining battlestars in orbit had either retreated or been destroyed the Generals knew it was only a matter of time. They had seen the nuclear detonation that had taken out Caprica City. But for some reason four divisions worth of Centurions had landed about eight miles from the city. The Marines had scrambled to put themselves between them and the Civilians that were trying to escape into the surrounding mountains. The 23rd had fought admirably but now it was his turn.

"All units this is General Gorton, Fire at will! Blow the cylons back to wherever the hell they just came from."

All around him Mortars started to fire as well as the Divisions artillery. On the frontline the Tanks opened up on the closest cylon rank and annihilated it. Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV's) rolled into the cylon lines, Machine guns blazing their passengers firing from the many firing ports in the IFV's. It wasn't long before the cylons were retreating. As soon as the advancing Centurions had begun to withdraw the 23rd had launched its own counter attack. Both attacks worked to perfection with the leading elements of the 13th Heavy destroying around four hundred centurions before rendezvousing with the advancing elements of the 23rd and then beginning to push north to drive the cylons into the ruins of Caprica city. The counterattack of Delphi became the most famous battle during the invasion of Caprica.

Soon general Griggs, Gorton, Manchester(18th) and General Morton of the 47th were plotting their next attack to break the cylon siege of Marine Corps Base Camp War Pig, where over fifty thousand Marines were desperately fighting to hold on until the 13th 18th and 47th could come to their aid.

The Battle of Camp War Pig lasted throughout the night as the Colonial divisions overran their enemy with overwhelming sweeping maneuvers into the enemy's southern flank. While Camp war pig had been built at this location for a specific reason its primary purpose was to prevent the nuclear bombardment of Delphi. Yet the base had run out of Firewalker anti-ballistic missiles about thirty minutes into the battle. But something that was puzzling the Base Commander was why the cylons hadn't even tried to nuke his base or Delphi. Griggs knew that as long as War Pig remained the cylons would never gain access to Delphi. He had taken the 23rd to stop the cylon units that had landed behind the Major Marine Base. The Cylons hadn't even bothered to attempt to attack the base from the rear as most of the bases defenses were pointed outwards. They had been too competent in their initial aerial and ground attack that they didn't even see the need for a rear attack. The centurions that had landed behind war pig initially hadn't even been as heavily armed as the later units that had landed. General Griggs speculated that the cylons were after Delphi's civilians for torture and experiments.

BATTLESTAR THERION - BSG 52

Commander Jason Riggs walked the halls of his ship and wondered whether or not he would ever get good night's sleep ever again. He had scolded his CAG out of anger, something he regretted deeply. She was by far one of the best CAG'S he had ever had. Her performance was spotless. The Commander knew that she was always worried about her performance and the way she looked. He would have to apologize to her later. But what was really troubling him was that the fleet had lost, they we're no more. He began to question why he and his ship had survived. That's when he realized that he and his crew might have survived by luck. When the Atlantia had been destroyed its nukes had cooked off taking the surrounding four baseships with it. Jason knew that even if they had survived by pure luck, he and his crew were alive and they were on a battlestar. The most destructive ship the Colonial fleet had in its inventory. He was going to put that to use in a rather creative way he had some of the best and brightest aboard, he had no doubt they were above and beyond.

As he walked into the CIC the crew snapped to attention. They were broken, they had seen so much death in the last day it unnerved even him. He knew he was going to have to bring up morale and quickly.

"At Ease. Listen up!" said the Commander, he waited before he knew he had their complete attention.

"I want all senior staff in the war room in ten minutes. Who's the officer on deck?" Asked the commander as a young woman raised her hand.

"Okay lieutenant. I want all vipers in the launch tubes except for the CAG, have gun batteries hot and ready. I want all DC teams ready to move and the Marines ready to repel boarders. When we jump to Ragnar, you can count on the cylons being there, but we're going to send em' a little message. Understood." said Riggs, he had dispatched a raptor to Ragnar to inform commander Adama of his ships survival, but they had been shocked to see the cylons there. While the SECDEF was technically the higher ranking on board he was currently incapacitated.

"Yes sir" replied the very young lieutenant who had now been charged with preparing the ship for battle.

The CIC crew stared at him, their eyes betraying their emotions. He could see it in them. While they looked calm and professional, deep down he knew they had all lost a part of their souls. He knew that they had all become the perfect weapons. They were heartless, emotionless in combat and were itching for some payback. He was going to give it to them.

Suddenly the Dradis consoled beeped twice and then twice more.

"Dradis contact, two cylon basestars bearing 349, Coram, 486. Weapons range two minutes, enemy contacts launching fighters." yelled Ensign James Hastings.

"Well looks like the cylons are giving us a little fight." the CO chuckled before saying "Action stations! Set Condition One! Scramble all Vipers and only Raptors equipped with heavy ordnance."

Outside the hull of the battlestar began to turn towards the two cylon basestars that were now launching hundreds of raiders towards the mighty battle scared battlestar. One by one Vipers streamed out of the launch tubes as they made their way towards the major battle that was sure to come. The gunners of the Therion trained their guns on the two double y shaped ships that they had so much hate for. Two Minutes later they let loose with a barrage of Flak and HEAP rounds. The vipers and raiders streamed in at each other guns blazing as the two baseships began to experience the fire-power of a battlestar who's commander was hell bent for revenge.

PICON FLEET HEADQUARTERS- 12 HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK

Slowly her eyelids began to open. The young Woman began to come to her senses as the last explosion for the battle of Picon was seen. The last Colonial Cruiser left over Picon was destroyed after having fought for twelve hours. She silently moaned in pain, the steel beam was still pinning her against the wall. She couldn't move, her leg was broken but the wound wasn't open. Captain Paige Terrence was just 26 years old. While she had been one of the Poseidon academies for gifted student's best, she had chosen the fleet. Soon she had found herself at the Colonial fleet Academy. That was where Admiral Corman had taken an interest in her as an aid. Silently she knew he was grooming her for command. Just three days ago he had told her he was making her his Tactical officer aboard the Erasmus for three years. She had been overjoyed when he had told her. She had grown to have a respect for him as any Admirals aid would but more of daughters like respect. Sadly she had almost no life outside of the fleet. Her whole life was the fleet. She knew nothing about romance even though she was beautiful in the eyes of the Marines who guarded the Admirals office. That's when the sound of gunfire startled her into moving, causing her to hurt her leg even more.

"We'll never surrender to you" Shouted a Marine as he fired his rifle. Taking down a Centurion.

A flash bang went off; the Marines went down writhing in pain. Her ears started to ring and her eyes became blurry. But she could make out the shiny silver body of a Cylon Centurion as it lifted the steel beam from her waist. As her vision came back she saw the centurions were just standing there, not even pointing their weapons at her or the Marines who were starting to come around. Suddenly a Centurion picked up her and the Marines and began to carry them to a cylon shuttle. She screamed in pain the whole way.

"She'll live, put her in the shuttle with the other females." said a man who at first she though was a collaborator but later realized was a cylon. Before they put her into the shuttle with a dozen other wounded Females she saw Admiral Corman being dragged into another one. Four marines were being dragged with him. She overheard one of the human cylons say

"You have to give the Marines credit; they gave us one hell of a fight. Over a thousand Centurions were destroyed by the Marines on the station. Even more on the Picon alone and the battle isn't even over yet."

"It will be soon, and those that didn't die in the nukes will enjoy our prison camps"

That was the last she heard before the hatch closed. She looked around at the other and noticed all of them were hurt much like she was.

CAPRICA

With all of Delphi now evacuated on either ships or into the mountains, the Marines abandoned Camp War Pig and headed north towards the mountains. They had defeated the main Cylon Invasion force for Delphi but they knew more were on the way. The generals all agreed the heavy equipment would be put into Caves that would be sealed up for the time being. The Marines themselves would conduct no more large scale battles for some time. They began to expand the caves in the mountains, soon they stretched for miles. For weeks the Cylons wandered the mountains in search of the Four Marine Divisions and the four Million people they had escaped with. The Cylon occupation of Delphi began. But General Griggs was determined to retake the city.

BATTLESTAR THERION

With gun batteries blazing and vipers locked in furious dogfights the Therion was slowly gaining the upper hand in the fight. Her KEWS' were firing dozens of HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) rounds into the baseships arms where the missile batteries were. Not even ten minutes into the fight, and the baseships were taking a serious beating as the Therion began to circle the now helpless baseship. With Raptors jamming every transmission the Cylons made for help, Commander Riggs knew he had the basestars dead to rights. With their rate of fire dropping rapidly from his gunners work, Jason knew it was a matter of time. His vipers had sustained loses but they were quickly wiping out the enemy's fighter wings and were starting to focus on the baseships missile batteries. Riggs had ordered them to focus on the raiders only but as a former viper pilot he knew what it felt like to be winning. They had gotten lost in their feelings of revenge.

"Order vipers to return to the Therion. Have them cover the Raptors as they land. Prepare to jump to Ragnar anchorage." said the Commander as one of the baseships blinked out of existence.

The other baseship was quick to follow.

Five minutes later the Therion jumped to Ragnar and immediately detected the debris from a battle. Three baseships were destroyed their hulks floating powerless in space.

WAR-ROOM BATTLESTAR THERION 6 HOURS LATER

"So Adama's left the sector. Can't say I blame him with over four hundred Civilian ships to guard. First things first, Lieutenant Forsen I want you to plot out a jump to the Fifth fleets last known position we can try to find them and hopefully link up our forces and then give the cylons hell." said Commander Riggs as he looked at the tactical chart.

"Yes sir" said Lt Amy Forsen. She still had a pretty bad headache and her left hand was in a splint but she could do her duty.

"Alright then Dismissed. Angel I would like you to stay for a few minutes." Said the Commander as he dismissed the members of the senior staff that were still alive.

Major Jessica "Angel" Burton didn't say anything as the hatches closed. She was nervous.

"I'm sorry Jessica, I should never have spoken to you like that in the way I did. Your record is amazing and you know I said that out of anger not meaning it. You're a damn good officer and I would hate to lose you. Please accept my apology?" asked the Commander with the sadness in his voice as clear as the sun.

Jessica only moved to hug him. As they hugged she said

"I forgive you Jason, but please don't talk to me like that again, it reminded me of my father." she said as she remembered her now dead father.

Jason Riggs chuckled and said

"I'm Glad were squared away. Now I need your pilots at a hundred percent okay?"

"You can count on us sir" She said as she saluted and exited out the hatch

ARMISTICE LINE- COLONIAL FIFTH FLEETS LAST KNOWN POSITION

With a flash the Therion appeared where the fifth fleet was last known to be.

"Sir we have nothing but debris on sensors. I'm registering fourteen battlestars, forty three cruisers and dozens of destroyer's sir." Said Lieutenant Forsen

"Launch Vipers, scramble the search and rescue raptors, head for the battlestars first" ordered the Commander.

As the vipers launched the pilots could see the devastation that had been the fifth fleet.

"Gods this was one hell of a fight." Said Lt Haley Aaron as she maneuvered her raptor into the hanger deck of a destroyed battlestar. Outside the remains of thirty baseships floated idly. Vipers screened the debris field for survivors or disabled vipers and raptors.

The White riders found the first survivors in the area surrounding the destroyed Battlestar Poseidon. A dozen vipers had had their EM suites fried by the explosions leaving them helpless in space for ten hours. The fifth fleet had been one of the last units to engage the cylons.

Over the course of ten hours the Therion recovered over a hundred viper pilots and a dozen more Raptor pilots. With fifty more vipers brought aboard from the battlestars that hadn't been able to launch their fighters due to the CNP. Only two battlestars in the Fifth Fleet had been destroyed because of the CNP. The fight had gone on for six hours, leaving the crews exhausted when the last baseships had been destroyed. The Survivors confirmed that the Universal and eight other battlestars had survived with about a hundred other Colonial ships. They had engaged in rescue operations before they had jumped away. While they had missed almost four hundred survivors the Therion hadn't. Riggs knew that the Remnants of the Fifth fleet would head for the Colonies and attempt to rendezvous with other surviving Colonial units. His problem was how to find them before the Cylons did.

PICON

Captain Paige Terrence woke with the sound of centurions entering her cell. For the last twelve hours she had been tortured, beaten and deprived of sleep. Every ten minutes she was kicked punched and was asked random seemingly unimportant questions. After thirty minutes the man left only to return ten minutes later and start all over. She was surprised she hadn't been raped by her captors. Her leg was in a cast; her wrist had been broken when a centurion had thrown her into the cell. They picked her up and dragged her through the camp. She winced in pain yet could not scream as her throat was dry from hours of screams she saw thousands of tents and wooden structures being put up. Thousands of POW's were being pushed around by the cylons. She like everyone else in the fleet had seen the footage of what the cylons did to prisoners. She knew what was going to happen. She tried mentally to prepare herself for what was coming.

The centurion dragged her into a room with a single bed in the middle. It then went and stood guard outside. She sat down to relieve the pressure on her leg. Almost immediately an old man walked in and said

"Good Morning Captain." Said a cylon who introduced himself as John as he walked into the cell. "No please don't get up. I just want to let you know were not going to torture you anymore." with that Paige huffed and rolled her eyes. "What? You don't believe us? We could have killed you and all those aboard the disabled battlestars, but we didn't. No we have something else in mind for you. If you Cooperate we won't kill you and you might actually enjoy your new life." said the old man as he walked out, Paige knew he had said every word forcefully hating it.

"Oh and a doctor will be by later to look at your leg, just don't try anything captain, we know Admiral Corman had you trained in self-defense. In fact you received your training from some individuals who right now are giving us a lot of trouble in the Colonies." With that he left and a young female entered the room with a medic's kit.

Paige smiled she knew that if her Self-defense instructors were alive then the cylons were in for a world of hurt. She could have easily killed the old man without any effort but the Centurion was another story. Even with a broken leg she believed she could

As soon as the woman approached Paige spun, her right foot connected with the woman's jaw twisting her neck. She had not placed any pressure on her broken leg instead using her hands bracing against the bed to spin and land safely. The woman was knocked unconscious by the kick. Then she heard laughing

"Didn't I tell you not to do anything? If it makes you feel better she wasn't a cylon, she was a Colonial lieutenant aboard the battlestar Olympic before we boarded it. We've been forcing the Medics to go around and do their jobs." said the old man as the centurion picked up the unconscious woman and put her on the bed

Another medic came in ten minutes later and tended to both of them. All three of them were then taken back outside and put into cabins with civilians. The Cylons were making sure that the military personnel didn't try anything. A lone woman walked down the streets taking pictures of the camp that was only now being set up. Paige guessed millions were kept within its confines.

BATTLESTAR THERION

With a flash the Therion appeared over the moon of Trevor near Caprica. Instantly vipers were everywhere. The raptors left the flight pods and headed for the colonies to search for what few survivors were left. The ship unknown to the crew was a high value target to the Cylons as she currently carried the SECDEF and Joint Chiefs.

CAPRICA

Raptor 245 piloted by Lt Haley Aaron arrived silently over the now occupied colony. Hundreds of thousands of Centurions were on the surface rounding up civilians and killing what military forces were left on the planet that weren't in hiding or already taken as prisoners. She instantly saw twenty three baseships over Caprica and thousands of Raiders. She saw the remains of forty three more. Floating all around the colonies was the disabled Colonial defense Satellites that had been shut down by the CNP. Twenty nine Colonial battlestars were floating destroyed in the space around Caprica, with eight hundred other ships that had been destroyed by the cylons.

There was so much electromagnetic interference from the amount of nukes that had detonated in orbit that Dradis was useless. She was forced to fly using mark one eyeball.

She saw another raptor threw her cockpit and signaled it, the raptor signaled back.

They initiated line of sight Communications and she heard

"Colonial Raptor, Colonial Raptor this is Raptor 816 of the battlestar Zeus, please respond"

"Raptor 815 this is Raptor 245 of the battlestar Therion confirm identity with recognition codes immediately." she said knowing that it could be a cylon trick used to hunt down survivors and eliminate them.

"Got em star, their good. Let's send the rendezvous coordinates and head on home." said her ECO

"No I don't want us to miss any other survivors, let's get some shots of the ground" she said. She was silently holding out hope that her sisters and her Niece had made it. She knew her sister had been aboard the Olympic over Picon when the attacks happened.

"Alright no longer than we have to thou. Last thing I want is the cylons seeing us."

"Agreed Hunter alright let's take her over the southern hemisphere near Delphi." said Star as the other Raptor jumped back to its ship.

For the next four hours they continued to take pictures of the destruction that was Caprica and they witnessed a Marine Divisions last stand near Oasis. But what shocked them most were the massive POW camps that were being built. The Colony wasn't even secured yet and they were already building Prison camps. Millions of Colonials were being rounded up and put into the camps.

When Lt Star Jumped her raptor back to the Therion she was shocked to see the Therion, The Zeus and the hospital ship Comfort. Surrounding the ships were dozens of frigates and four cruisers.

Commander Jason Riggs and the CO of the Zeus and the Comfort were inside the wardroom discussing their next move. The SECDEF and Joint Chiefs had been made aware of the situation but were still to critically wounded to assume command and had been evacuated to the Comfort for treatment.

"We can't hope to retake any of the Colonies as of now. The cylon forces there are too strong. We wouldn't last ten minutes."

"I agree" said Commander Amy Barnes, of the Comfort, "we need to find the fifth fleet or what's left of it anyways."

"We think there preparing for a counterattack but we don't know where they might launch it." Said Riggs as he brought up the list of destroyed battlestars. There were 68 on the list with twelve more listed as unknown.

"Well that's a lot of battlestars that didn't get destroyed" Said Commander Thomas McNamara as he read the list with watery eyes.

"Most were disabled by the CNP virus, and boarded by the cylons. They took the crews and put the battlestars into a geosynchronous orbit over nearby moons. We don't know where the crews are being imprisoned but you can bet there aren't very many Marines with them." said Riggs knowing that the cylons were probably torturing the crews.

PICON POW CAMP

It had been only 2 days since the cylon attack on Picon fleet headquarters. Her leg was getting worse and the headaches were still coming. She had spent most of the last 48 hours sleeping until about forty Marines from one of the Divisions stationed on Picon had launched a mortar attack on the cylon guard posts. The firefight had lasted for an hour until the Marines had withdrawn. She had tried to get the medics that were with her to go and get some other fleet personnel but the cylons were enforcing a lockdown until they had more troops to maintain security.

The Cylons were heavily engaged with eight Marine Divisions in the Countryside of Picon. Nearly ten thousand centurions had been destroyed by the advancing Marine Division who were fighting with a ferocity never before seen by the cylons.

They had no idea that the troops would refuse to surrender and fight to the death as the 56th Infantry division had done. Only 220 soldiers had been captured. Over 18,000 Centurions had been destroyed attempting to overwhelm the surrounded division. Their courage was admired by the human model cylons and the 220 survivors were aboard a cylon baseship in orbit awaiting treatment for their wounds. They would later perform several experiments on them.

Captain Paige Terrence got up from her bed, wobbling over to her improvised crutches made from two long sticks and started to walk outside. It hurt like hell to even move. She barely could anyway. Despite the lockdown she made it over to the next hutch with the medics helping her. Inside were a dozen Colonial Pilots from different ships and bases. All were wounded to some degree or another. The cylons had beaten them to the point where they could no longer walk. Soon the sound of gunfire could be heard over the mountains as the 13th Colonial Army division battled the cylons in the Piconese Mountain range. The Colonial troops just kept coming and the cylons only had so many forces left on the planet.

She was still hoping that the fleet would somehow manage to retake Picon. But she knew that it was unlikely seeing how bad the fleet had lost in orbit.

CAPRICA- DELPHI- CYLON COMMAND CENTER

With screens lining the wall and centurions coming and going one knew that the War on Caprica had only just begun.

"Four, Four! That's how many divisions of Marines we're up against in those mountains. And we have no idea where they went in those mountains. Then we have the twenty eight battlestars that managed to survive not counting the Galactica and the other six battlestars in its fleet." Said a Six model in exasperation

"It's only been two days six, doubtless the Colonials are preparing for a counterattack. We have to be ready. But the forces chasing the Galactica fleet need reinforcements. They've lost fourteen baseships so far. They do have an agent in the fleet that's transmitting their position and we are engaging every thirty three minutes. For the last two hours thou we've laid off. Six baseships against six battlestars and seven other military vessels aren't even. They won't last ten minutes against them." said a four

"Dispatch another twenty baseships to assist them. Now we need to find these other battlestars. We know a lot of them are heavily damaged and chances are their preparing for their final battle. But I'm more worried about the land battles." Said Cavil as he read the latest report

"Yes. The Marines sure have hampered our plans but it's only a matter of time before they are either forced to surrender or we kill them." Said the three that had only just joined them from the field.

"But the citizens of Delphi! Well never have enough to initiate our plans" said a Simon model.

"We have plenty of subjects for you to use. Don't worry brother." said cavil as read the number of humans that were in the POW camps.

"Forty two Million in total. Two million are military. However most of the military personnel are in pretty bad shape" said cavil reading the report.

"That's more than enough" said Simon as he smiled.

As they cylons discussed their plans, a Colonial Marine zeroed in on their command base. He spoke silently into his radio

"Target grid location confirmed, Fire 6 125 Mike Mike, on target, Wind speed 12 north. Bring the rain!"

A dozen high impact mortar rounds slammed into the building causing it to collapse. The Marine specialist smiled and ran back to his squad as they pulled out of the city for the last time.

THERION

Lt Amy Forsen lay down gently in her bunk. As she closed her eyes the events of the past day hit her. She knew that her family was gone and that her life was never going to be the same again. Yet she felt bad for thinking of just her family, billions of others had died. Why hadn't she? She cradled her knees into her chest and cried. Images flew through her mind as she cried images as vivid as if they were happening. She got up out of her bunk knowing no sleep would come to her that night, or anytime soon.

Commander Jason Riggs was in his quarters silently staring at the wall. Knowing that the Colonies were still burning yet powerless to stop it. He hated this feeling of defeat. He knew that the Marines were still fighting but he just didn't know what to do. He couldn't take his two battlestars into a fight over a colony and hope to win. He knew the Marines and the Army would fight until their dying breaths. He felt sad to know that he was powerless to stop any of it.

Commander Amy Barnes silently laid herself down to sleep letting her long blonde hair hang over her bunk. She too cried herself to sleep. For eighteen hours her ship had taken on over four thousand wounded service members. She had seen the rows and rows of the wounded. She knew that she would never forget their faces much less their screams. She had thought the Zeus finding her ship had been a miracle, now she wondered if those two battlestars were about to go on a suicide mission.

CIC BATTLESTAR THERION

Colonel Sean Branson was watching the Dradis as he heard a sob from the communication station.

He looked up to see Ensign Jamie Harris with a tear going down her cheek. He knew that the whole crew was depressed. The colonies had been lost. While the ground troops were still fighting after two days, The Colonel knew it was just a matter of time before they were defeated. The Zeus had lifted their spirit's a little but he knew they were so down that many were just simply sitting in their racks, crying themselves to sleep. It hurt him to realize that there was nothing that could be done about it; even the pilots were crying themselves to sleep. It seemed even their ego's weren't invincible.

In her bunk Lieutenant Haley Aaron was trying not to think of her niece and her sisters. But she couldn't stop the tears as she saw his seven year old face in her head. She couldn't help but wonder if he had made it out of the city before the bombs had fallen. She didn't know if he had been aboard the Olympic for family day or if her family had even gone. When she had realized that the Cylons hadn't nuked Delphi she was overjoyed only to find that the 23rd Marine Division had given the citizens very little time to escape. They had held the cylons off for nearly a day but they had eventually retreated. She had seen the long line of survivors that were heading into the caves of the mountains. She just wanted closure. The sheet that covered her bunk was opened. Her co-pilot put his arms around her and cradled her while she cried. She fell asleep in his arms after nearly ten minutes of crying. Lieutenant Michael Wilson sighed as he realized that she was asleep. He hadn't said a word the whole time. Sometimes it was best to just let people cry. He couldn't help but smile and lie down taking her with him. Her head rested on his chest while he fell asleep. He made sure to close the blind before the CAG walked in and started yelling at them for fraternization.

PICON FLEET HEADQUARTERS

With most of the station inaccessible due to the damage that had been inflicted in the attack, Cavil knew the station was useless. But he wanted it left here as a reminder of their triumph over the Colonials. A symbol of their defeat.

PICON POW CAMP

Amazingly to the cylons the Marines had managed to break their lines and were now advancing towards the POW camp. Every single centurion available was being mustered to meet the advancing divisions head on. The forty two hour battle was devastating to both sides. Over twenty two thousand Marines died in the first day alone. They never reached the POW's, even after four days of heavy fighting. For the cylons they lost over four thousand raiders and forty eight thousand Centurions. As a result of the battle, the cylons knew they no longer had the numbers necessary to hold Picon if the remnants of the Marines and Army divisions linked up with other units throughout the planet. They began to evacuate all of the POW's to Caprica for fear of losing them. Thousands of ships were involved in the evacuation as the Marines slowly continued to advance. Small units of elite Mortar and sniper teams continued to harass and interdict patrols and cities that were occupied. The troops just wouldn't give up.

Paige Terrence was shoved aboard a Colonial Luxury liner. Her leg was starting to feel better. But she was scared. What few soldiers and Marines that were prisoners were helping the wounded to their seats. A Marine lieutenant put his arm around her hip to help her to the rear of the craft.

"SITREP" She said as she wobbled down the isle

"Cylons are moving us Caprica. The units that are still fighting are giving the cylons one hell of a fight ma'am. The Marines almost broke through to us last night from what I heard. The baseships in orbit had to start an orbital bombardment" Said the Marine proud of what his fellow Marines had done.

"Damn, I wish they had. It'd be nice to get out of here huh?" said Paige as she sat down.

The Marine lifted up his pant leg to show her a sidearm. "Were working on it Ma'am

Paige smiled and said "Pretty good for a Jarhead"

The Marine laughed and walked away smiling. She laughed to herself and realized that she had just made a joke to a Marine. One that she didn't even know at all. She was starting to become more open and friendly. The two medics, one being the one she had knocked out, already followed her orders blindly. They had laughed and made jokes together. But she knew it was just to relieve the pressure over whether or not the Army would get to them those two long nights.

Suddenly a centurion stepped inside the shuttle and stood by the hatch. Frak! She thought to herself. The Marines couldn't risk firing an explosive round while the Cylon was near the hatch. She knew she had to do something in order to get it to move. The liner lifted off the ground followed by a dozen more. Suddenly she screamed out. Faking pain she waved the other POW's off. The Centurion began to walk over to her. The Marine that had helped her over stood up and fired. The explosive round was not designed to be used in a cabin but the Marine had no choice. The round struck the centurion dead center. It collapsed, its head a smoking ruin, the ships fire suppression system turned on instantly. In seconds she was soaking wet as was everyone else. Two Marines ran to the cockpit and two more shots were heard. Suddenly two pilots stood up and ran to the cockpit. They immediately imputed a set of coordinates and jumped the ship. Two more luxury liners did the same. The Marines didn't have the weapons to take over all of them. Captain Terrence raised her head and smiled at the Marine who did the same back to her. He nodded his head and walked to the cockpit.

A Commander stood up and walked to the cockpit. She was the youngest of the Commanders in the fleet. Soon she looked out the window and knew this was where the Cylons had taken the disabled Colonial ships. Thousands of them were in orbit around the moon. Including A dozen battlestars, the luxury liner she was on was headed for the battlestar Olympic. A mercury class battlestar.

All three shuttles docked and the now freed POW's ran to secure the ship and wipe the CNP from the ships systems. The Marines were running to the ships armory securing weapons and vital areas of the ship. Captain Terrence and about twenty other officers were heading for the CIC. They passed by a hundred bodies of Marines who had died to defend the ship. As soon as they reached the CIC they saw the body of Commander Joseph Wright. His hands around the throat of a human model cylon with eight bullets in his back. Slowly the ships systems came on line and they began the ten minute long process of wiping the hard drives of the CNP. Paige took up her station as tactical officer before Commander Sammie Tanner told her to go down to sickbay and recover. She silently nodded and went down to the sickbay. She was limping down the hall when she felt a pair of hands on her hips and a face come near hers. She spun only to see the Marine who had taken out the centurion. He put his hand around her backside and under arm. He then pushed her arm over his head to help her.

"You don't quit do you?" said the Marine as he guided her to the Sickbay.

"Nope, I sure as hell don't." she said with a sly smile.

"That was good work aboard the Civie. Im Jacob, Lieutenant, Jacob Stark"

"Nice to meet you Lieutenant and thanks by the way. For saving my life and helping me out, it means a lot. I really appreciate it." With that she planted a kiss on his cheek, and felt the butterfly's in her stomach.

He smiled and said "don't mention Ma'am. I don't think I caught your name?"

"Oh uh Paige Terrence, Captain." she said nervously.

"Okay Ma'am. Let's get you to sickbay." said Lt stark as he picked her up by her uninjured leg and around the waist. She put her arms around his neck and smiled. "Marines" she said. He just chuckled and kept walking.

The doctors gave her a sedative and she fell asleep. When she woke up the ship had jumped to an asteroid field to sort it out.

"Commander Tanner we have 121 Viper Pilots with 38 raptor pilots. 53 marines and over 600 knuckle draggers. Fifty eight officers not pilots of them eighteen are in sickbay. The rest are regular battlestar and cruiser personnel who know what they have to do. The senior staff are organizing their departments and will give you a more detailed report by tomorrow." said Colonel Michael Fisk as the reports throughout the ship came in.

"Excellent. Let's get some raptors out there and see if we can link up with the remnants of the fleet" Said Tanner knowing she had a lot of work to do

With that the Olympic launched her raptors to search for survivors.

THERION TREVOR MOON

For the last fourteen hours the Therion had been sending out raptors and Probes to search for survivors. Lt Aaron had intercepted communications between two cylon baseships over Virgon.

_7 Colonial Battlestars Destroyed by Cylon forces over Aerilon attempting to retake Colony. _

_Four Cruisers escorting-Location now unknown after FTL jumping from battle._

_2 Colonial Raptors spotted over Leonis attempting to scout planet's surface._

_4 baseships destroyed by 3 Colonial battlestars near Sagatarion. Identity of battlestars unknown_

_3 Baseships destroyed by battlestars Pegasus and Mercury- Boarding of Pegasus unsuccessful._

_2 baseships destroyed over Picon by unknown number of colonial units attempting to retake Colony. 1 colonial heavy cruiser destroyed._

_Finding of twenty one remaining Battlestars remains top priority._

_Colonial Marine Divisions have successfully retaken Picon after linking up near the destroyed capital. Cylon units on surface defeated at 1634. Cylon Centurions from all occupied colonies except Caprica to immediately rendezvous in orbit over Picon for renewed invasion. All prisoners except 2,400 aboard three Colonial transports successfully transported to Caprica- location of three transports unknown but retaken by Colonial Marines. Marine and Army units evacuating the surface of Picon to unknown location_

_Basestars are too continue to track Galactica fleet and attempt to destroy it. 68 baseships now designated to Galactica task force. _

_56 designated to occupation of the Colonies._

_Remaining baseships to resume search for Colonial 7th Fleet – 25 battlestars and four hundred and sixty warships and other Combat support ships. Fleet is believed to be headed for Promar sector._

_7th Fleet is at Full strength. Fleet did not; repeat did not suffer any casualties as a result of the attacks due to inactive status, believed ordered by Admiral Nagala to assume readiness state due to unknown reasons_

_Battlestars Zeus, Therion, Acheron , Acropolis and Sagatarus not seen since engaging Cylon forces near the asteroid belt. All battlestars are believed to be alone at this time except Zeus with the Hospital ship Comfort and four heavy cruisers._

Riggs sighed as he read this. The cylons were hunting down the Galactica and the 7th fleet in the promar sector. He was glad the Marines had retaken Picon and were evacuating to an unknown location. He knew that it would be awhile before they got off and he decided not to reveal the Zeus just yet. The cylons didn't know they had linked up and he hoped to keep it that way. He was overjoyed to finally have some useable intelligence. He planned to make use of it.

CASTER ASTEROID FIELD 7 DAYS AFTER THE FALL

The Colonial Fifth fleet once the proudest of the entire Colonial Fleet, now a shadow of its former self. Having suffered heavy losses in the one week since the fall, they had destroyed a total of eighteen baseships since the deadly first battle that had decimated their numbers. Half the fleet had been lost at the battle of Caster. The asteroid Caster was named for the battlestar Commander who during the first war led a massive counterattack against the cylons destroying a dozen baseships inside of an hour. He had used the asteroid as a staging area for his forces. The Fifth fleet had fought its first battle there in over forty years. They had won but at a price that wasn't worth celebrating.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC 7 DAYS AFTER THE FALL 2 DAYS AFTER RETRIEVING BATTLESTAR OLYMIPA

Captain Paige Terrence awoke with the sound of an explosion. The ship shook violently as the battlestar suffered an internal explosion. She was knocked off her hospital bed by the explosion as were several others. She cried out in pain as her leg hit the steel floor. Tears began to swell in her eyes as explosions continued to rock the ship. She heard gunfire from the down the hall and realized the ship had been boarded or there had been Centurions aboard to begin with. The hatch was thrown open and a centurion appeared. She gasped silently as it approached its machine guns pointed at her. She began to shake violently, the images of what the cylons had done to her and other POW's popping into her head. As the Centurion approached she began to cry. She instantly threw her head to the ground as the centurions head blew apart.

A piece of shrapnel embedded itself in her shoulder. She felt the warm liquid began to flow down her arm and onto the floor. Her breathing started to get shallow as she went into shock.

"Medic!" shouted several people as they ran to assist

CAPRICA 2 DAYS AFTER THE RETREAT FROM DELPHI

Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion 29th Marine Infantry Regiment had set up dozens of IED's in the valley where they waited to ambush the cylons. Their chrome plated armor shining bright against the reflection of the sun. A sniper raised his powerful rifle and centered it on the centurion. He slowly put his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze. The battle began as several other snipers did the same.

THERION

Lieutenant Haley Aaron woke up looking into the face of her ECO. She moaned slightly and he opened his eyes and said "Good morning there sunshine. How are you feeling?"

"Better I guess, still can't believe it thou, It's just so…" he cut her off and said

"Don't. Let the historians do that okay? Our job is to put bullets in cylons. That's in the past now. " he said with a cold voice that would have sent shivers down Haley's back if she didn't want it too.

"So say we all" She said as she stretched.

'Damn she's amazing' thought Michael Wilson as she sat up.

"Wait…did we… sleep together?" she asked suddenly wide awake and alert.

"Ah technically yes, but in the way you mean no. you cried yourself to sleep." Lt Wilson went on to say that he would be there for her if she ever needed her and that what happened could stay between them.

"I'd like that" She said just before she kissed him and rolled out of the bed. "I'd like that a lot"

Lt Wilson sat there dumbstruck as she walked out; when she was out of the hatch a small grin appeared the edge of his mouth. Maybe things weren't so bad after all.

CIC- BATTLESTAR THERION

Jason Riggs stood looking at the Dradis console wondering if he would ever see it full of green dots again.

He looked at his XO, Colonel Sean Branson and remembered how they met. It was when he had led the massive military offensive against the SLA two years ago. He had ended up catching tom Zarek and practically ending the terrorist organization. The Colonel had been a Major at the time. He had been the CAG of the battlestar Acheron. His viper had been shot down and he had been taken prisoner. The Marines had managed to rescue him after eight hours of brutal torture and interrogation. The SLA had wanted to know how many ships were in orbit. The Colonel was happy to tell him the entire Third fleet. The SLA had started to retreat after that. But they didn't know that the Third fleet had hit every single SLA base and safe house in all of the Colonies in a massive attack that made Adar, one of the most popular figures in the Colonies. His approval had started to fall after the Sagatarion massacre and the budget cuts in the fleet. While the Military budget had been massive, the cuts weren't large enough to hurt the build-up of arms. In fact the Military had trillions of cubits stockpiled over the years. In the event that war broke out they would be able to build and get whatever they needed

Lieutenant Amy Forsen was silently watching the Dradis while tending to her regular duties. The Zeus was just off the bow of the Therion. With the Comfort directly behind. The cut on the side of her head was starting to heal after the long days and she had finally stopped thinking of her dead sisters as much as she had. Her blue eyes shifted from screen to screen as she watched them for anything that could go wrong. Her head was pounding from her headache that still hadn't gone away.

Commander Amy Barnes was at her station in the CIC of her ship the Comfort. Currently housing four thousand wounded Colonials. With a crew of two thousand five hundred, the hospital ship was crowded to say the least. For the first two days she hadn't gotten any sleep. The last three days she had cried herself to sleep. But she refused to cry in front of her crew. She wanted, needed to be strong for them, to give them some hope. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, reliving those first few hours in seconds. She opened her eyes and brushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face. The Marine at the door looked at his commander and smiled. She was highly respected by her crew; most had been with her since she had taken command two years ago at the age of thirty six. She had one daughter who had been on Picon the day of the attacks. Her ex-husband was the governor of Picon's chief of staff. Their marriage had always been rocky, with her always on deployments and him always working for the governor. They had split when he had supported the governor's controversial bill to reduce the military to a force necessary to defend the Colonies only with strict limitations on the amount of troops and spending. She wished he was still alive now. But she didn't regret the split with her ex-husband. She had gotten command of Mercury. While it was a hospital ship. It was still a mercury class hospital ship. A Variant of the battlestar with minimal weapons and a very small defensive fighter wing, just forty vipers, but nearly two hundred raptors and dozens of shuttles. She considered herself lucky she hadn't lost any of her crew during the cylon attack. That in its self was no small miracle. Her ship had fired at the cylons, recovering wounded at the same time. She had jumped her ship along with the four other medical frigates that were with the Comfort to the asteroid field where she had found the battlestar Zeus. The Zeus had just finished off two baseships and was preparing to jump when she had jumped in. The commander of the Zeus Commander Thomas McNamara had led her ship away from the cylons. By rapidly jumping along the asteroid field they had avoided the cylons. Commander McNamara had launched raptor probes to the colonies in an attempt to find survivors. She was overjoyed when they had found the Therion.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Captain Paige Terrence tried to get her breathing under control. She was sobbing uncontrollably and breathing heavily. Seeing a Centurion after escaping from the POW camp rattled her to the core. For twelve hours after her leg had been put into a cast, they had kicked her to keep her awake. For about eight hours after they had left her in the cell, naked and cold. The cylons red eye going back and forth was what had done it. The whole time she had been in her cell, it had gone back and forth being the only sound in her cell. The Centurion had broken her wrist when it had thrown her into the cell. Now sitting on the infirmary of the battlestar Olympic, she had a piece of shrapnel in her shoulder and she was starting to get cold from the loss of blood

"Doc, Its Lieutenant Stark, you guys okay in here?" said Marine Lieutenant Stark as his Marines secured the surrounding hallways.

"Yeah I think so, specialist tend to Captain Terrence" said a male Major who was now the Chief Medical Officer aboard the Olympic.

The Medic was at her side instantly. She winced as the medic pulled out the piece of shrapnel and began to close the wound. She suddenly felt herself being lifted onto the Bed. The medic started an IV instantly. She felt someone squeeze her hand and she looked to see Lieutenant Stark smiling weakly at her. She smiled back through the pain and then started to fall asleep due to the sedative she was getting from the medic.

CIC - BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Commander Sammie Tanner sighed as she heard the report; four hundred more personnel had been killed. The cylons had locked themselves in various compartments waiting for the lights to be turned back on, and to start their killing. The Marines had done an amazing job in preventing the Cylons from taking over the ship again. At the cost of forty one of their own. She needed Marines. The ship had taken moderate damage from the explosion when the cylons had detonated a charge near the ships armory. She couldn't keep taking casualties like this.

THERION 5 DAYS SINCE THE FALL

"It's time to hit the cylons where it hurts, we've done nothing but jump randomly, basically were running and that's bull. This is a Goddamn warship. It's time to prove that. For all of our ships. Now I want some suggestions and I wanted them a week ago." Said Jason Riggs with a cold to his voice that meant he was pissed.

"Sir we still have ships that are damaged it could take weeks." Lt Forsen was cut off harshly by her Commanding officer

"NO!" He screamed "I don't want to hear frakking excuses I want it frakking done. Nothing else, I want somebody to tell me where we can hit the cylons and hard" Said Riggs as he looked around. He was tired of hiding and the SECDEF shared his sentiment.

Lt Forsen just looked straight ahead. McNamara and Barnes said nothing as they looked at the tactical plot.

"Well sir…. Look at the formation of the cylons, their moving entire divisions to Picon right? They know that we still have fleet units capable of inflicting large amounts of damage on those transports. So their close together. To provide protection the baseships are spread out evenly too, what if we exploited that?" said Branson.

"What do you mean? Asked Barnes as she thought it over in her head. All of the commanders around the table started to get the same idea.

"Raptors!" Said McNamara

"Loaded with Nukes and lots of em." finished Riggs with a smile.

"Sir we should also look to exploit the depleted cylon forces around Caprica, they left only a few."

And with that the commanders got down to true business.

"Let's get this show on the road people" said Riggs as he walked into the CIC.

"Action stations, Action Stations, Set condition one, all hands prepare for combat jump." Said Lt Forsen as she gave the thumbs up to her CO.

The Therion moved slightly behind the moon. Waiting for the signal from the Zeus. A dozen fast attack frigates accompanied the Therion. Lieutenant Haley Aaron sat silently in her Raptor waiting for the word to launch. Her Raptor loaded to the Brim with Jaywalker Nuclear anti-ship missiles. Thirty other Raptors were waiting to head out with her. Major Jessica "Angel" Burton sat in the cockpit of her Viper silently waiting for the order to launch. All 186 Vipers of the Therion's Air wing were primed and ready to go. While the Therion had 280 Vipers aboard she had only a 186 pilots left to fly them. All of them were waiting for the order to launch. Lieutenant Amy Forsen was at the Tactical station in the CIC waiting for the signal that would send her into ship into combat once again. Her eyes were betraying her emotions. She wanted revenge. Her eyes were that of pure steel. But beneath they were shattered, she like many other had been wounded during the combat jump to Virgon. She had been unconscious for twelve hours. She didn't sleep for the next twenty eight hours, eventually crying herself to sleep in her bunk.

Major Jason Steel sat at his command post waiting to give the order to his Marines. He had lost his wife and family in the attacks and he wanted to satisfy, for a while at least, the burning hate he had for the cylons. Thirty Minutes later the signal came and the orders were given.

Zeus had jumped to Caprica, which now had only five baseships guarding it. The four heavy Cruisers had gone with the Zeus. The Therion was jumping to Picon to buy the Marines time.

With a flash the Therion appeared over the now dead world. Thirteen baseships were in orbit. Along with hundreds of transports that undoubtedly held Cylon Centurions. The Raptors launched, the Vipers shot out of the launch tubes headed for the oncoming Raiders. The raptors implemented their part of phase one immediately. Thirty one Raptors appeared inside the Cylons ranks, missiles flying in every direction. Dozens of Nuclear explosions rocked the space around the planet. Visible to the Marines and Soldiers still below.

PICON

The Marines were still loading up on the transports when the sky was suddenly lit up. Instinctively acting on training alone, they all ducked. Then they started to cheer. The explosions were clearly visible to them. Hundreds of them began to light up the night sky as the Cylon fleet lost another eight baseships and almost a third of its Centurion Army to the well-aimed nukes from the hell bent on revenge pilots of the battlestar Therion.

"Yeah, get some!" Shouted a Marine as he waved his fist in the sky

"My gods I thought the fleet had bought it. I'll be damned; the fleet pukes are kicking some ass" Said a young Marine Lieutenant.

"Took them damn flyboy's long enough"

Several explosions sounded in the atmosphere.

ORBIT OF PICON

The ship shook violently as another missile hit. The fast attack frigates were ganging up on two of the baseships that were damaged. In less than three minutes both were gone. Vipers were flying all around guns blazing, blowing apart Raiders by the dozens. The pilots performing the most difficult attack they knew, yet also the only one ever created that had almost no practical counterattack that could be used effectively against it. The pilots had practiced in the simulators for hours on end. Yet the tide was turning against the pilots as more and more enemy raiders came into the fight.

The Raptors had not escaped unscathed, thirteen had been destroyed with four more heavily damaged. The remaining four baseships were finally committing their fighters to the fight after ten minutes. The leading fighter formations had been taken out by the massive nuclear assault. The fighters from the rear ships were only now getting into the fight, ten minutes in. The Therion itself was fighting two baseships while the Fast attack frigates focused on the other two

COLONIAL FIFTH FLEET REMNANTS

The CO of the Battlestar Heliopolis looked at his tactical officer with eyes wide in shock. He knew the remnants of the fleet would launch a counter attack eventually, he just didn't expect it to be so massive. Over two hundred nukes had detonated in orbit over Picon, another twelve at Caprica. The Cylons were taking a beating according to his raptor scouts that had been at the colonies since they had arrived back in the Cyrannus system.

"XO jump the ship to Picon order Universal and Nexus and the Trinity to come with us, I want the Acheron and the Pacifica to head to Caprica to assist the Colonial units there. Titan is to stay here and guard the non-combat ships. Let's kick some ass Colonel" Said the legendary Admiral Willington. The crew hurriedly went about to carry out his orders and prep the ship for combat.

HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT NEAR SAGATARION

Commander Amy Barnes listened as her XO reported the nuclear detonations over Caprica and Picon. She was shocked at the amount of destruction one ship could cause. She had known the battlestars were extremely powerful but she never would have guessed one could be capable of taking out seventeen baseships in one blow. A tear started to swell in her eye as she heard her XO say more detonations were taking place. This battle would last a long time.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC

Captain Paige Terrence awoke with the alarms blaring and the crew rushing to get to their new action stations. While they had been aboard the ship for just under three days, the departments were mostly organized and the crew had been assigned stations and quarters in less than ten hours. She tried to sit up but the pain in her wrist and leg became too great. She was beyond exhausted at this point.

Commander Sammie Tanner was waiting for her new XO to report the status of the ship. Nuclear detonations had been picked up at both Caprica and Picon, meaning a fleet counter attack was under way. She intended to join it.

"All decks report Condition one is set, ship reports ready to jump ma'am" Said her XO with the voice of an old warrior used to saying it over and over.

"Jump us to Caprica!" Said Tanner as the ship jumped.

CAPRICA

The Zeus' opening assault had taken out three of the baseships. The other two had managed to intercept the nukes that had been bound for them. The cruisers had immediately moved to engage in close quarters combat with the Baseships, preventing them from using a retaliatory nuclear salvo for fear of destroying themselves in the process. The Zeus launched its fighter wing and Raptors with heavy ordnance as the Great War ship went directly between the two enemy capital ships guns blazing. Aboard the Zeus Commander McNamara looked at the Dradis and felt his heart sink. Two more Dradis blips appeared. The Zeus was a formidable ship but even it couldn't defeat four baseships on its own. But with two of them heavily damaged it was possible. Even with the six cruisers they were in for a tough fight. When they changed from red to green and the word changed from 'unknown' to 'Colonial battlestar' his face was a mixture of shock and joy. Both ships began to launch vipers and raptors to assist and began to fire at the two remaining baseships.

"Tactical identify those ships!"

"Sir colonial battlestars are squawking mode three, friendly forces confirmed, transponders read as battlestars Acheron and Pacifica." Reported his Tactical officer as he looked up in shock.

"I'll be damned" Was all the he could say

A minute later another red blip appeared only to change again from red to green and say 'Colonial Battlestar'. The Acheron , Pacifica, and the Olympic began to pound the baseships with heavy weapons fire at an increasingly deadly rate.

Captain Paige Terrence grabbed onto the edge of her bed with her good hand as the ship shook from another explosion. Her mind was going through the endless possibilities as to what was going on.

PICON

The Therion was now heavily engaged in combat against the remaining four baseships, having destroyed two more after they had jumped in with a nuclear strike. Missile after missile struck the massive ship. The space above the planet was lit up with explosions.

THERION

"Dradis! Contact! Forty Two new contacts just jumped into weapons range!" Commander Riggs felt his heart sink as red dots filled the screen. His mouth fell open in disbelief, as thirty five of them changed to green representing four Colonial battlestars, sixteen heavy cruisers and seventeen other colonial military vessels who were all now engaged in combat with the cylons.

"Helms! Left full! Order starboard batteries to focus on the enemy troop transports. Contact Vipers tell them to plow the road!" Said Riggs as he saw another Baseship blink out of existence.

Lieutenant Marissa " Butterfly" Stas smiled from ear to ear as she lined her viper up for the shot.

"Yeah, ha-ha! God damn that was nice!" she said as she wiped out another raider. This was her thirtieth kill inside of an hour. She maneuvered her viper to cover her wingman as he lined up on a heavy raider.

She silently thought to herself, as she watched her wingman waste the heavy raider, that combat from the seat of a viper was amazing. For most of the fight her mind had been blank. She had tried to focus on nothing but the fight but the mental exhaustion of combat had caught her unprepared after nearly an hour of maneuvering and engagement.

CAPRICA

The Zeus was firing rapidly into the baseship as another missile impacted the flight pod. Vipers flew in every direction, guns blazing into the fray with a renewed vigor at seeing more survivors. The Acheron was in front of the Zeus firing half of her gun turrets towards the baseship in front of her, and the other half towards the baseships slugging it out with the Zeus.

The Olympic had committed her Vipers and Raptors into the fight and was maneuvering to take the lead baseship while the cruisers laid down a flak field to protect her from missile hits.

Captain Paige Terrence listened to the sound of the KEW's as they fired. She knew the ship was heavily engaged, it was obvious by the seemingly endless and steady stream of missiles that kept hitting the ships armor. The Mercury's however had been built to take a lot of punishment. There were small Meter wide gaps in between her outer and inner armor to dissipate the explosion thus reducing the damage to the ships interior. The Guns were firing at twice the rate of fire as during the first war and the ship itself was moving and firing at an incredible rate.

She gripped the rail of her hospital bed with her good hand as another explosion shook the ship, silently wishing to herself that she could be in the CIC where she belonged.

Lieutenant Jacob Stark listened as the ship fired round after round into the cylons. He learned that he loved to hear the massive gun turrets firing. He smiled every time they did. Yet every now and then his mind would wander to Paige Terrence in the sickbay. Shaking his head he focused on the Tactical battle net as reports came in from his few Marines aboard.

ZEUS

Thomas McNamara kept his face clear of emotions even as the crew burst into cheers and shouts of joy, as the last baseship succumbed to the ferocious amount of firepower that four battlestars had unleashed on it. The last remaining Raiders jumped away leaving the four Battlestars as the last ship in orbit of Caprica. Commander Thomas McNamara began to plan for their attack on Aerilon. Intelligence provided by the Fifth fleet unit confirmed only five baseships per world. Why the fifty other baseships in the system weren't launching a counterattack on his ships was lost to him, but he intended to take advantage of the cylons grievous mistake. McNamara gave the order and the ships jumped.

PICON

Commander Jason Riggs looked at the Dradis screen and was relieved to see only debris and Friendly ships. Seven Battlestars surrounded the Therion, with seventy six other military vessels. Several other surviving ships had jumped in. All were pointed outwards to repel any potential cylon counterattack. Raptors had landed on the surface and they now knew where the Marines were headed; a small asteroid field near Aerilon. This was a problem due to the Zeus' assault on Aerilon that only now was beginning. The Fifth fleet sent six more heavy cruisers to assist. With thirty other fast attack frigates headed in for a rear attack. The battle lasted for less than an hour with Aerilon being retaken as well. The Zeus returned to Picon. With Picon and Caprica along with outlying Aerilon now in the hands of the Colonial Remnants, Riggs knew that it was just a matter of time until they came back, spaced out, in attack formation and ready to fight. He considered ordering an attack on the other colonies, but that decision rested now with Admiral Willington aboard the Heliopolis. For now twelve heavy cruisers were holding Caprica while Civilian ships lifted off the surface. Hundreds were jumping in to both Caprica and Picon after the Therion had sent a message in the clear saying Caprica and Picon had been retaken. All were being referred to the Comfort's location, for rendezvous and medical treatment. Some were landing on the surface and picking up survivors. Even some ships the cylons had captured were being brought on line and used to evacuate the four Marine Divisions that had held Delphi and the other fifty thousand Marines and two million Civilians they had fought to defend. Forty seven other military vessels none combat capable except for basic defenses, jumped in. Two more mercury class hospitals ships showed up after an hour of recovery operations. All were being referred to the Comfort and ever growing refuge fleet she guarded.

Suddenly Lt. Forsen shouted

"Dradis contact, it's the cylons! Twelve baseships three minutes to weapons range"

'Why twelve, there no match for nine battlestars and almost seventy other military ships' thought Riggs as he looked at the Dradis. It made sense to him as another twelve jumped in behind them. Five Battlestars and half of the cruisers made a rapid speed run in an attempt to protect the unarmed transports still lifting off and evacuating.

The Therion's vipers reacted immediately positioning themselves in between the civilian's ships and the Cylons. Eighteen cruisers all damaged to one degree or another, moved in to a standard V-attacking formation headed for the lead ships of the cylon formation. The battlestars moved in on selective targets and began to engage. Lt Amy Forsen relayed orders through the wireless for the next six hours. The vipers came and went from the flight pods nearly a dozen times, rearming and refueling as the battle became more and more pitched as eight more baseships showed up.

"Sir we've just lost two cruisers with all hands sir" Riggs just sighed and ordered SAR raptors to be dispatched.

The two cruisers were lost to heavy missile fire from the baseships after thirty minutes and three more were lost when the cylons launched a nuclear salvo and took them out.

"Sir we can't keep taking hits like this"

"Multiple hull breaches on several decks"

"Port battery twelve is out of action"

"Vipers report another wave inbound"

The reports kept coming in one after the other. The Therion and all the other battlestars were taking damage. Their guns hadn't stopped firing since the first minute, ammo was running low and pilots were showing fatigue.

"Sir the Heliopolis just took two nukes amidships. We no longer have wireless contact with the flagship." reported the exhausted Lt Forsen. Twelve hours of condition one always took its toll.

"CAG reports the Heliopolis is lost sir. They're in an uncontrolled spin and taking heavy fire and returning none sir." Stated Lt. Forsen with a worried look on her face

"Contact the Universal and Nexus tell them to plug the hole. Get SAR to the Heliopolis and inform all other ships that I am assuming command."

"Sir… Heliopolis just took four more nukes…. She's gone sir…. All hands lost." Reported Lt Forsen with tears in her eyes. Four thousand lives had just been lost, all represented by the green icon on the screen

Jason Riggs could only stare at her his mouth wide open as he looked down. The whole CIC crew was now looking at their commander. A missile hit on the flight pod drew them all back to the fight

Admiral James Willington was lost with the Heliopolis.

"Order all ships to close distance and engage at close quarters, take them out with KEW batteries. Get in close so the cylons can't use their nukes." Said Riggs as the battle progressed even further.

"ETA to the last civilian is away?" asked Riggs as the damage to each ship grew immensely. Twelve cruisers had been destroyed or had had to retreat due to damage. Four hundred and seventy two civilian vessels of all different size had managed to jump away and despite the number of vipers in the air some had been lost to the raiders.

"Ten minutes sir and all civilian ships are now taking fire from the cylons sir. Vipers and fast attack frigates are moving to intercept." reported Lt Forsen. The fast attack frigates had taken a beating in this fighting, losing eighteen and six more taking severe enough damage that they had to retreat.

"All ships break off the battle line. Include the Defenders, engage in ship to ship combat, break the cylons lines!" shouted Riggs as more and more civilians jumped away. They just had to buy a little more time.

"Radiological alarm! Inbound nuke! Brace for impact!" Shouted Lt Forsen as the missile got closer.

"Oh God" said Sean Branson as he was thrown to the deck and

The weapons officer was killed when he fell and broke his neck. Lt Forsen was again knocked unconscious and suffered a severe abrasion on her left side again. Commander Riggs was severely wounded after the Dradis monitor exploded due to a power surge and showered him with debris.

"Comms! Get a flash message to the Zeus tell Commander McNamara to take command. Tell our vipers to come aboard and bring back as many other friendly fighters as possible. Spin up the FTL drives we have to go now. We're not gonna last much longer!" Shouted the XO as a Marine Medic tended to the wounded.

ZEUS

"Sir signal from the Therion. We are to take command and direct the fallback of all colonial forces to the rendezvous point. Therion is no longer combat effective. Nuclear detonation against their starboard flight pod has crippled their starboard batteries and opened several sections to space. Therion is retreating sir"

"Very well acknowledge recite of orders. All Units are to fall back to alpha line, Cruisers are to launch missile barrage to suppress the cylons. Prep for nuclear strike as soon as all units are at the alpha line" Ordered McNamara as the Zeus turned and fired a full broadside at a baseship, destroying it. Only nine baseships remained for the now six combat effective battlestars.

"Sir all ships have reached the alpha line, last civilian ship will jump in two minutes." Reported the Zeus' Tactical officer.

"Cylons weapons range?" asked McNamara as he watched the red blips draw closer the green line that had been formed.

"Forty seconds until weapons range sir" Their speed run had bought them time. Initially they had pushed the cylons back as far away from the civilians as possible in order to put distance from the cylons and civilians while at the same time giving them freedom of maneuver. It had paid off by buying them more time. The battle had lasted nearly six ours, with heavy casualties on both sides.

"Prepare to recover our vipers and Raptors, all ships stand by to jump on my command. Standby on warheads one through twenty"

"Enemy force closing, fifty thousand yards"

"Weapons range in five seconds"

"Launch!" shouted McNamara

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouted the weapons officer as the cylons drew into the weapons envelope of the Battlestars.

"Thirty seconds to jump!"

"Come on, Come on!" Shouted McNamara

"All fast attack frigates and Cruisers are away sir only ships left are capital vessels and the last civilian vessel sir"

"Ten seconds, cylons are closing on the nukes sir"

"Fifteen seconds to jump

"Ten"

"Nine"

"Raiders are firing on the nukes forty percent of our missiles were intercepted and destroyed all remaining missile are on course. Detonation in five, four, three, two, one." and once again the space over Caprica was lit up with the fury and destruction of nuclear infernos engulfing eleven cylon baseships. Two of which had only just jumped in.

The Zeus was the colonial Ship to leave the space around Caprica.

CAPRICA 2 HOURS EARLIER

General Stanley Griggs looked out at the stars and saw them littered with debris. Most of it was Cylon but fourteen hours ago it had been mostly Colonial. The Heliopolis had been destroyed, with it Admiral James Willington. The Sagatarus had been forced to abandon ship after four nukes from one of the baseships detonated on its engines leaving the ship dead in the water. The Mercury Class Olympic had sustained moderate Damage over Aerilon and had been taken into one of the Mobile Dry-docks of the Fifth Fleet. The Therion itself had taken severe Damage and was now in the Venturous being repaired. Four thousand civilian ships had made the rendezvous carrying over two million people. General Griggs couldn't believe the massive battles he had witnessed over the last week. He looked out at his Marines loading into transports to head to the rendezvous. He grinned knowing his Marines would live to fight another day.

THERION 1 HOUR AFTER THE RETREAT

With most of the ship heavily damaged the DC teams were the only the people on the ship. The crew of the Therion were in quarters aboard the Venturous. The Venturous was one of the best mobile dry-docks in the fleet. She was also the largest, which was why the Universal was also inside the dry-dock.

Lt Amy Forsen was still unconscious after the nuke had detonated on the starboard flight pod killing over three hundred of the crew. She and eight hundred other crew members would remain in sickbay for days as a result of their concussions. She would stay asleep for the next two days.

WARDROOM 10 DAYS AFTER THE ATTACK

Commander Jason Riggs still wounded but once again able to stand on his own looked on as Rear Admiral Scott Keyes spoke. Keyes had been aboard the Mercury which had jumped into the battle at Aerilon. Unfortunately the ships there hadn't been able to assist the battle at Picon. But now with twelve battlestars, nineteen cruisers and over forty eight other combat arms ships they could all rest easy knowing the heaviest fighting was more than likely over. They couldn't have been more wrong

"…it's by my order and the approval of the Chief of staff of the Colonial fleet, that I'm Promoting Commander Riggs and McNamara to the rank of Rear Admiral effectively immediately. Now for the rest of you, damn fine job in keeping your ships intact and your crews alive, especially you Commander Tanner. What your Marines did to get the Olympic was damn fine work. Great Job getting her into the fight. The Comfort will take your wounded and transfer those that have recovered to you. Contact General Griggs and get him to give you some Marines."

"Yes Sir, I'll get with General Griggs right away." Said Commander Sammie Tanner as she saluted and left.

"Commander Barnes, you and your crew did an exceptional job. You demonstrated outstanding leadership during those chaotic first days and your crew and ship are a testament to that. Be proud of yourself commander"

Barnes smiled and simply nodded her head, she was at a loss for words.

"The Rest of you are dismissed." said the Old Admiral as he watched the assembled group of officers leave the room. He was sad yet proud of these men and women at the same time. Sad that it had taken this of all things to bring them together. Proud of what they had accomplished with the little they had.

HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT 3 DAYS LATER

"Hey sleeping beauty. Good morning." Said Lieutenant Jacob Stark as Paige Terrence opened her eyes.

"What are you doing here, what happened to the Olympic?" she asked before she saw the bandage on his arm. She didn't know how long she had been out

"Broke my arm when the ship took a nuke fell pretty hard to the deck." he said with a grin "anyways they're kind of cramped in here. So I agreed to stand until they can stabilize some of the other patients and get them to the other ships." he said pointing to the severely cramped quarters of the hospital ward

"It's noble, you can sit at the end of my bed if you want, but if you touch my broken leg I'll kick your ass" she said grinning and laughing.

The Marine laughed and sat at the end of her bed.

"Doc said your leg was getting better. Said you could be back on duty in a few months. Wrist should heal inside of two months. Same time frames as my arm so I guess were stuck together." Said Stark as he handed her a glass of water.

She took a sip and handed it back.

"What's wrong with that? I get to make fun of a Marine for a few months" she said as she sat up even more trying to avoid hurting her leg.

He laughed and they started to talk about their lives, Past Assignments, school, their childhoods, everything. She fell asleep about three hours later. He sat down on the stool and watched her sleep for about ten minutes before heading to the ships mess hall.

Commander Amy Barnes was sitting at her desk doing paperwork approving personnel transfers to the Olympic when she heard a knock at the door.

"Enter" she said, in walked her husband and her two year old little girl

"Mommy! Mommy!" she shouted as she grabbed her in a hug and started to cry tears of joy.

"Oh My gods, I'm so glad you made it" she said as she ruffled their hair. She couldn't believe her eyes as she stared into the eyes of her daughter, were only days ago she assumed her dead. She was overjoyed.

"We were in a POW Camp on Caprica, the Marines on Picon forced the cylons to move us to Caprica and then the Zeus launched its attack. When the baseships went up in flames, we knew the fleet was back and then the Marines all over the planet launched attacks on the camps. The cylons got overrun and we loaded up into the transports and jumped away." Said her Ex as he picked up a book one of her kids had knocked over.

Just as she was about to say something the Alarms started to blare

"Action Station, Action Stations, Set Condition one throughout the ship, Commander Barnes to the CIC ASAP"

'Damn it what now?' thought Barnes as she stood up and hugged her child. She put her two year old down and walked past her husband

"Works always came first" said her ex-husband as she walked past him without saying a word.

"Don't start with me!" She said as she walked out the door to the CIC

The Marines at the door escorted her to the CIC

CIC

"SITREP" She said as she walked in.

"Eight Baseships at extreme range. Battlestars are moving to engage. Cruisers are in standard blocking formations between us and the cylons, Civilians should be gone in thirteen minutes." said her XO

"How long until the cylons are in weapons range?" She asked as her kids walked in to the CIC with her ex

Her XO hesitated looking at her ex before answering "Four Minutes"

"Okay. Launch Vipers; order them to focus only on enemy fighters that break through the cruiser and frigate defense line. Order all civilian ships to begin moving at sub-light speed away from the Cylons." She said. When the fleet became engaged she was in charge of the Civilians. She knew what had to be done. Distance from a fight was crucial to the civilian's survival.

Nine battlestars were now heading straight for the cylon basestars that had just doubled in strength to sixteen. Three battlestars were in dry-dock and weren't combat capable.

Commander Amy Barnes looked at the Dradis screen became filled with green and red dots as Vipers and Raiders sped at each other, guns blazing. Admiral Jason Riggs silently knew that this was going to be a turning point. Sixteen baseships were nearly half of the surviving cylon capital ships left in the Colonies. The Fifth fleet and the Therion, Zeus and Sagatarus had claimed thirty five baseships over Picon, Aerilon, and Caprica. They had learned that almost two hundred baseships were chasing the Galactica fleet and the rest were staying inside the Colonies.

Paige Terrence listened as the alarms blared again. She had gotten only four hours of sleep. She sighed; the ship had been engaged in operations for nearly six hours now. Transferring wounded to other ships, receiving wounded from other ships and now this. 'God when does it end?' She thought. The fleet had been assembled for less than three days. She was wounded and lying in a hospital bed and was exhausted, she could only imagine what everyone else was going through.

The Civilians had slowly begun to jump away leaving just half of their number behind. Soon the battlestars opened fire. The kinetic energy rounds slammed into the baseships sending spouts of flames and debris out into the other ships. The vipers and Raiders twisted and turned engaging in the hell known as combat. Long range missiles slammed into the cylons from the cruisers and frigates. Colonial Defenders moved to attack the baseships in close quarters preventing a nuclear salvo from wiping them out. They moved behind the Colonial nuclear salvo of almost a hundred nukes that had been fired first. The amount of nukes left in the fleet was starting to become dangerously low as the number of times their use was necessary started to become more frequent. Luckily the ships of the Fifth Fleet had the means to procure more and they were just beginning to spin up the necessary tools to do so.

The battlestars had opened up offensively but had now formed a battle line. Overlapping their 160 degree flak fields. Each battlestar was providing time for the civilians to escape before they allowed the battle to become full-fledged. Once the civilians were gone they would break the line and initiate ship to ship action with individual baseships while the Cruisers moved to hold off the other nine baseships so the Battlestars could even the odds. Forty two cruisers were mixed in with thirty six fast attack frigates in a scattered battle line protecting the one hundred civilian ships that were left.

'In a minute all of the Civilians will be out of danger and the real fight begins' Thought Admiral McNamara as his ships rocked from another missile detonation. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. It almost seemed too easy.

"Get me Admiral Riggs on the Acheron"

"Admiral we have to recover our vipers and jump as soon as the civilians are away. This fight just doesn't seem right to me, the cylons moved in to slow. There were no scouts either. Just eight baseships followed by eight more. Sir this feels like a trap to me."

"I Know, it probably is but we have to cover the Civilians withdraw. Commander Barnes is taking the last civilian transport into the Comforts flight pod because their FTL drive got blown away from a cylon agent. The damn thing blew itself up frying their FTL. It'll be at least another ten minutes before the Comfort can get her aboard. The Raiders aren't even picking a fight with our vipers their headed straight for the big ships. Including the Cruiser Line." Said Riggs..

"Their trying to draw out our Mobile docks and wipe 'em out." Said McNamara realizing that if the cylons got the Mobile dry-docks then the Battlestars and their crews inside would be gone, and the fleet would lose the ability to repair large amounts of Damage to their ships.

"Those Docks are strategic assets now; order the Hospital ships to dispatch their viper wings to protect the Mobile docks. The last Civilian ships just jumped and the Comforts beginning to attach the disabled transport now. We have to hold out a little longer. The docks are almost ready to jump" Said Riggs in an exasperated tone.

"I'll dispatch a few squadrons to help the hospital ships squadrons." Said McNamara wishing that the Therion and Universal's air wings could be in the fight.

With that the last FTL capable ship gone. The Cruiser- Frigate Defensive line broke apart and began to engage. The viper wings now had the authority to pursue and destroy their targets wherever they went inside the battle zone. The Battlestar line began to fall apart as the Cruisers came up and began to engage. The battlestars gunners all began to zero in on their targets firing at the enemy's missile batteries and fighter bays. Soon a dozen viper squadrons were in an air defense formation protecting the Mobile dry docks and shipyards.

Five minutes later the Comfort had finally brought the Transport into the Flight pod and the vipers were being instructed to land on the Acheron. The Comfort Jumped away taking the transport in its hanger with it. The Mobile Dry docks soon followed. Despite their size, the FTL jump cores of the Mobile dry docks required several more minutes to warm up then a normal ship. Fifty nine Vipers had been destroyed to give the Dry docks time to jump away.

The battlestars began to recover their fighters and raptors to jump when three more baseships jumped in and fired a salvo of nuclear missiles at the Trinity. One second the ship had been firing then the next it all stopped as the ship became engulfed in several miniature suns. The flight pods were blown off and the engines blew out from the ship. One headed directly for the Zeus.

"Sir we've lost the Trinity, vipers reporting a piece of debris is headed right for us." reported the Comm. Officer

"Jump!" shouted Admiral McNamara as the Trinity blew apart.

"Jumping in three two…" The Tactical officer never finished his sentence as the trinity's engine hit.

The whole ship shook as the engine from trinity skimmed the massive warship barely avoiding taking out the Zeus' flight pod.

Admiral Thomas McNamara was knocked to the floor. The room went dark and the ships emergency power kicked in. The Auxiliary CIC took over operations and jumped the ship to the Nebula. McNamara was unconscious inside of two minutes as was most of the ship.

ACHERON

"Get us out of here!" said Admiral Keyes as the Zeus jumped away. Admiral Riggs who was standing next to him shook his head; they had just lost another battlestar with all hands. 'When does it stop' he wondered as the ship jumped. He would have another moment of silence in their memory as soon as the wounded were taken care of. 'Gods don't let the Zeus be too bad'

COMFORT

Commander Amy Barnes was rushing to the operating room. When the report had come in that Admiral McNamara was inbound and unconscious she had nearly screamed. They had become extremely close in the week they had known each other. She had heard of him before but she had never met him before the attacks.

As she walked in to the ward room and saw him lying next to Captain Paige Terrence she gasped. The Captain was asleep the Admiral had a gash on his head and the bandage was soaked red.

She silently walked over and took his hand in hers and cried.

"I don't know if you can hear me tom, but just stay strong. It's going to be okay. It has to be"

THERION- TWO WEEKS LATER

The Therion slowly slid from its moorings and slid back into the cold dark of space as she was released. After two weeks of being in the dry-dock she had been fully repaired and was once again fully crewed. The Battlestar Nexus quickly replaced her in dry-dock.

"Finally my ships repaired, I got a full crew again. My pilots are back aboard and we can get to work" said Admiral Jason Riggs to the Aerilon representative who had been rescued from the surface after the Zeus had retaken the planet.

"Well admiral I would love to have your support for my election. If you would accept my thanks for rescuing me and my staff off that battlefield without you we all would have perished." Said the Black haired woman as she extended her hand to him in thanks.

He shook it and said "You can count on my support but just remember all Military Decisions rest with the Admiralty and the Joint Chiefs ." he said firmly, the Admiralty had decided it was in the best interest to set up a limited government to keep the people in order. The SECDEF would be her personal adviser in the matter but wouldn't take any orders from her.

"Of course, now that the cylons aren't showing up every two hours and hell week is finally over we can establish a working government at least until we rendezvous with the Galactica and President Roslin."

"Good now if you'll excuse me I have business to attend to." said the admiral as he walked out. He was glad he didn't have to deal with a presidential election. That was the last thing he wanted.

COMFORT

Paige Terrence laughed as Jacob Stark finished his story.

"You Marines are unbelievable." she said through her laughter.

"Hey, give me credit I saved your ass" he said as she smiled at him

"Yeah, Yeah okay credit is given where it's due but don't push it" Paige said as he laughed again.

For the last thirteen days they had had no contact from the cylons and the fleet was busy getting itself organized. The wounded were recovering nicely as she was. Her leg was healing remarkably fast. Her leg would be healed inside of another four weeks instead of six more. She smiled as Jacob Stark gave her a kiss on the forehead and headed to the mess hall to get them some food.

Commander Amy Barnes was sitting next to the bed of Admiral Thomas McNamara discussing the current situation in the fleet when she decided to ask him to a game of tennis on Cloud four.

"Hey I heard there was a tennis court on Cloud four, feel like getting smashed?" she said in her soft Caprican Accent.

The Admiral smiled, chuckled softly and said "well it's been awhile since I played but I'm pretty sure I could give you a good fight."

"Really? Well I guess I'll have to put your viper jock cockiness to the test huh?" She said as she gave him a hug before returning to the CIC.

"Yeah I look forward to it." Said the Admiral as he walked her out of his quarters. The Marines at the door instantly snapped to attention and started to walk about two feet behind them. They walked into the CIC and said goodbye. Admiral McNamara returned to duty within the hour.

COMFORT

Lieutenant Ashley Goodwill walked in to the CIC with her Daughter Amanda in her hand.

Amy smiled as her two year old ran to her and gave her a hug. Her XO smiled as the child said

"Mommy when can I have some chocolate?"

"Well why don't you have Lieutenant Goodwill take you down to the Mess hall and get some."

"Yay!" was all the kid said as she took the lieutenant's hand and dragged her to the mess hall.

Amy smiled and turned around. Her XO was smiling and shaking his head

"She reminds me of my niece. Cute little angel I swear" He said as she took her station near the Dradis Console.

THERION

Lieutenant Marissa "butterfly" Stas was sleeping in her rack when several shots rang out. She jumped out of training and reached for her sidearm. She had absolutely no clue what was going on. The other two pilots in the room did the same. All three of them were wearing tank tops and shorts. A dozen more shots rang out and the alarms started going off.

Lieutenant Haley Aaron held her sidearm towards the door ready to fire. She heard a Marine through the hatch yell as he was hit. Two more Marines were heard yelling curses and battle cries as they fired their weapons. All three of them assumed the ship had been boarded sometime in the night. Several human model cylons had been discovered by a roaming Marine patrol in one of the ships massive Armories. Lt Jessica "Firefly" Brookes leveled her sidearm at the hatch as it slowly began to turn. All three of them had their guns trained on the hatch as it opened. They instantly fired a dozen rounds into a human model cylon. He fell as part of his jaw was blown off, the teeth clattering to the ground. Another round had struck his left eye leaving a star shaped hole. Four rounds had struck him in the heart, with another six ripping open his stomach. His intestines fell to the floor in a jumbled mess as a Marine behind him fell to more weapons fire. Soon more Marines appeared and a dozen more human cylons were killed in the same gruesome manner. One was blown apart by an explosive round from a trigger happy marine who had anticipated centurions. The Medics were quick to get to the wounded as the Marines began sweeping the hallways and corridors for more. The three pilots stared at the bloody corpse that was lying face down in a pool of blood and guts. Lt Brooke doubled over and vomited instantly

"Oh Frak me" said Lt Stas as she too did the same

Lieutenant Haley Aaron quickly followed in the vomiting as the Marines and the Medics took several steps back and waited until they were done before asking if they were okay.

CIC

"Sir Major Dandridge reports his Marines have secured most of the ship, last few sections are being searched now. They have six KIA and twelve wounded." reported the Tactical officer Lieutenant Amy Forsen who was a wreck. She had still not been able to go to sleep without crying. Even after hell week had ended. The Cylon agent who had been transmitting their location had been found by Marines from the 18th Marine Division aboard a civilian freighter locked away in a cargo hold. The cylons hadn't been seen since then, until now.

Admiral Jason Riggs had noticed it too. Lt Forsen was falling apart, she was dying inside put she was standing tall. He knew that eventually she would pull herself together and be herself again. It was just a matter of time.

"Very well. Contact Admiral Keyes and Admiral Stevens aboard the Mercury and inform him the ship is secured." said Riggs as he made a note to speak to the Marines and thank them for their swift response. In truth he was impressed

COMFORT

Commander Amy Barnes sighed in relief as her XO reported the Therion secure.

"Prepare to receive any wounded they might have." She ordered as she picked up the headset.

MEDICAL WARD 12

Paige Terrence moaned as she opened her eyes. Lt Stark wasn't there. She was in a new room. A recovery room she realized looking around. Her condition had finally become stable enough that she didn't need the constant monitors and nurses to watch her. She wobbled out of the bed and to the door where her crutches were.

Outside in the Ward dozens of Marines, Pilots and crewmembers of various ships were going about, exercising and relaxing. She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped.

She turned to face Lt Stark.

"Relax, welcome to your new home for the next few weeks." he said as he pointed to a chair.

"Thanks for scaring the crap out of me." She said as she sat down.

He sat down opposite to her and brought her leg up on his knee and started to rub her foot.

"Umm that feels good." She said as she closed her eyes and leaned back

"I know my mom was a doctor, got use to rubbing sore feet, she taught me how to rub hers" he said as he started to rub her ankle.

She smiled as she realized that she was falling in love with him.

THERION

With the ship secured Lt Amy Forsen returned to her bunk. The mess made by the Marines had been cleaned up along with the diner deposited by the pilots. She still however found it hard to sleep

Admiral Jason Riggs looked at a picture of his wife as he cried in remembrance of their anniversary.

Lt Haley Aaron had been ordered to take three days of shore leave aboard cloud four after her experience in the bunk room. All three of them sat in the raptor that was taking them to cloud four. They were joking and laughing when the raptor docked and the hatch opened. All three of the female pilots who had escaped death so narrowly got out of the raptor with Lt Michael Wilson and Lt James Carson.

CLOUD FOUR

As they walked down the hall, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her legs, nearly tripping her. She looked down to see her seven year old nephew Scott. Her heart leap with joy as she picked him up. For a second she couldn't believe.

"Aunt Haley, you alive, thank you for getting us off Caprica. The Cylons were scary." Said the seven year old as her sister walked up to her and gave her a hug.

"Damn you made it, can't say I'm surprised." Said her sister as kissed her cheek. She was a Colonel now and the XO of the Olympic.

"Oh thank the god's sis. I'm so glad you're alive" she said as they hugged and Scott hugged her leg

"Thank the Marines, they kicked ass on Picon. Got us off that battlefield alive" Said her sister as they let go and Haley picked up Scott.

"I'll be sure to pat them on the back" she said in between tears

"It was family day on the Olympic, mom and dad made it too, the Cylons took most of the ship prisoner" Said her sister who was now that same ships executive officer.

For the next two hours they talked and Haley took Scott to the ships game room as her sister got some sleep. She was overjoyed that he was alive; she treated him as her own child as they licked a pair of ice cream cones together much to amusement of her two fellow pilots.

CAPRICA

Cavil walked the streets of the now destroyed city of Oasis where the 32nd Marine Division had made its last stand. They had fought for hours, fending off one attack after the next. He had been disappointed to learn that some had escaped the magnificent death that was the 32nd Marine Divisions graveyard. Most had gotten on the shuttles and transports that had landed when the Zeus had retaken Caprica. Thankfully they hadn't taken the forty two million prisoners that had been taken. The four were having a field day with so many subjects. But most were being treated like they were guests. The Civilians at least. What few members of the Military hadn't fought to death were now being rigorously tortured. What amazed him was that none had broken the first week. Even two weeks later only a fraction had broke to their torture. He was beginning to have doubts about whether the humans were so inferior.

ORBIT OF PICON

Six stood on the command section of the Command baseship over Picon and looked at the massive debris field of several hundred cylon and Colonial ships.

They had put up a fight here; she knew that the Fifth fleet under Admiral Keyes was a force to be reckoned with. They were powerful and they had not been seen for about two weeks now. This worried her. The Universal and Therion had been heavily damaged during the Second major battle over Picon that had resulted in over a dozen baseships being taken out by a single battlestar and a few cruisers. She couldn't understand how one ship had done so much damage. One ship had wiped out a whole fleet. A densely formatted fleet of ships that had been too close together that when the nukes had hit they had taken dozens of Fighters, transports, and two or three baseships with them. They had been incompetent and she wouldn't let it happen again.

CAPRICA POW CAMP

Admiral Peter Corman had lost track of time. He had been beaten to the point of death and was ready to give up. He knew that the fleet was still fighting. Giving the cylons hell he was sure. But the torture was too much. They hadn't skinned him alive like during the first war instead they had tortured him with words, and electric wires hooked to his chest. The door opened and The Once mighty admiral screamed in pain again.

BATTLESTAR ARES - NEAR THE CYRANNUS NEBULA FIELD

The hulk of the giant warship was scared, beaten and lifeless. She was floating helpless in space, her crew was alive but without propulsion or the ability to abandon ship. Her flight pods had no power and for two weeks she had been floating aimlessly in space after her last FTL jump from Virgon. Commander Christopher Williams had lost any sort of hope. The Dradis was gone. All the relays had been destroyed or completely disabled. The Maintenance crews had tried for hours to re-boot the FTL drives only to learn they were fried. Most of the ship had given up on rescue. They were slowly waiting to die.

Suddenly the ship rocked lightly. Everyone in the CIC looked up as the Lights dimmed. The Energizer had finally gone out. Lt Mary Carter closed her eyes and tried to fight the tears.

THERION - 3 DAYS LATER

Admiral Jason Riggs was in the War-room with Admirals McNamara and Keyes with Commander Barnes of the Comfort.

"We don't know if the ship was boarded so the Marines will go in first and use the loading hatches as breaching points, they'll use the Airlocks as well but the flight pods are without power so their out for breaching." said Admiral McNamara

"The ship didn't respond to any transmission so we can safely assume their without power. Their weapon batteries appear to be locked in the firing position but nobody's manning them. Either they abandoned ship or their just sitting around waiting to die." Said Admiral Keyes bringing up new images from Lt Haley Aarons raptor.

"I'll have the Comfort ready to receive any wounded that we find. Our shuttles will be standing by for the word Admirals" She said looking at Admiral McNamara.

"Alright Admiral Riggs this is your operation coordinate with General Griggs and get me another Battlestar." said Admiral Stevens as he stood up. While being the Chief of staff of the fleet he knew better than to interfere in the inner workings of the Admirals own units. He simply trusted them to get the job done. It was a well laid trust.

TWO HOURS LATER

The Therion was launching raptors and vipers to surround the disabled battlestar while the Marine Corp boarding shuttles moved into position. As one they latched onto the hull and began to open the hatch

"Sir we have Confirmation from General Griggs the Marines are boarding, the first few frames are depressurized and their moving into the ship now, they've encountered no resistance or crewmembers." Reported Lt Amy Forsen as she received the communiqué from the general.

BATTLESTAR ARES SECTION FOURTEEN AIRLOCK TWELVE.

A lone Marine was patrolling the corridor when suddenly he heard what was indistinctively known to the Marines as a ship docking with the airlock. He Radioed in

"Boarders, Boarders, I say again we are being Boarded." Said the Marine Sergeant as he leveled his rifle at the hatch

All over the ship the Marines woke up and rushed to their stations, flash bangs could be heard going off all over the ship. General Griggs had ordered the Marines to take the ship even if the crew was alive. They were ordered to search for any human model cylons. The flash bangs were to prevent the crew from resisting and turning on each other after two weeks alone in space. Commander Barnes and her medical staff were concerned about space dyslexia.

"Move out, watch the right, Flash!" she heard a Marine say just as one went off.

Lt Mary Carter ran down the corridor as the flash-lights of the Marines could be seen. Then a flash bang went off and her head started to ring. She collapsed, her head ringing and spinning. She was lifted on to a stretcher and taken to the Comfort.

THERION

Admiral Jason Riggs looked over the reports from the Marines. They had found no human cylons aboard the Ares and most of the ship was secured and the Venturous had brought the ship in for repairs. While the Marines were still securing the fleet, all military vessels were training and performing drills to keep their crewmembers occupied and busy. Their victories at Caprica, Picon and Aerilon had been overshadowed by the loss of the Heliopolis and the Trinity. The crews from all the ships had been exhausted after the first six hour battle had ended; the next one had lasted eight and had taken a heavy toll on the military. The viper pilots who had pulled CAP right after the battle had collapsed as soon as they were out of the cockpit.

Lt Amy Forsen laid in her bunk in shorts a tank top and her hair in a ponytail. She rolled over and moaned softly as she fell asleep. Her blue eyes dreaming of once again walking the Caprican beach and feeling the sun on her back.

Lt Marissa Stas was in the pilot's ready room watching a video made on Caprica. She was silently thinking in her head about all the pilots and friends she had lost after the attack.

THERION

Major Jessica Burton was just about to take off her clothes to take a shower, after a six hour long patrol when a hand grabbed her from behind and shoved her into the wall. She instantly spun and tried to block her attacker. His right fist connected with her jaw and sent her to the ground. She looked up to see one of her pilots Lieutenant Jason Rills. His eyes were watery and blood shot, and his breath smelled heavily of alcohol.

"Their dead because of you. Half of my squadron died when you ordered us to provide defensive fire for the Trinity. They didn't have a chance. All cause of you." he said. Gargling the words through the ambrosia. His voice was shaky and hesitant. Which gave her the impression he wasn't sure about what to do?

"Listen, it was combat okay? You can never know what's going to happen, I lost a lot of my friends too but we just have to move on you can't change what happened and this isn't going to help." she was struggling to sound calm and stern.

"Move on…just like that? Like it's nothing at all!" His voice was now clear and laden with anger. In a second he moved downward his hand in a fist

Jessica Burton raised her forearm and blocked his first hit, but then his left fist hit her in the armpit and her forearm fell. His fists connected with her jaw and her head was knocked into the deck. He hit her several more times until he stood up. Her face was bloody with bruises and cuts all over. Her left eye was swollen shut. Rills looked down at her and then got on top of her. Sitting on her waist. She knew what was coming as he began to push her pants off. She tried to resist but he was too strong for her to even try. As her pants came off. He looked back at her face and he hit her again. He took off her shirt and hit her again repeatedly. An hour later he pushed her in too a bathtub and started to fill it with water. She was completely naked and shaking from the experience when he began to beat her again. His pupils were dilated and his eyes completely blood shot. An explosion rocked the ship and He fell to the floor and began to breath heavily, as he collapsed Jessica saw her chance, and started to get out of the tub. She knew the ship was probably under attack and it was her job to be out there with her squadrons directing them in the fight. She had to end this now. The alarms started to go off and out of the corner of her eye she saw her pants with her sidearm lying beside it. He saw her through the corner of her eyes and started to get up groggily, she was limping. He started to walk towards her as she grabbed her sidearm and turned. He froze.

"Don't" he said his hands out.

"Go to hell" she said as she pulled the trigger and sent a bullet into his stomach. The lieutenant reeled back and spun. He managed to catch himself on one of stalls and steadied himself. She fired again and he arched his stomach forward as the round sailed through him. Deep dark blood began to drip from the wound but Rills remained standing. She fired again and aimed higher. The round struck his left lung and this time he fell to the floor. The sound of air rushing from the wound, forcing the blood out as his lungs filled with it. The lieutenant was desperately trying to get air into his shattered lung when Major Burton collapsed and began to sob in her knees. She pulled down a curtain and wrapped it around herself. She sat there for a minute before a Marine rushed in and immediately called for a medic.

CIC 5 MINUTES EARLIER

"So what you're telling me lieutenant is that we have a problem here." said admiral Riggs as he tried to understand what Lt Forsen was saying.

"Yes sir, the engineering crew failed to notice it when they plugged in the auxiliary to return power to the flight pods. The energizer's unstable sir. Something went wrong when we got the new one from the Fifth fleet replenishment ship." she said as calmly and slowly as she could.

"Okay contacts the Venturous, we're going to need an extended stay in the dock to replace it and get it right this time. I want all the senior staff in the wardroom in thirty minutes. Tell the CAG I want the squadrons based on different ships until repairs are complete." ordered Riggs as he looked down at her sleeve and noticed a drop of blood. He made a mental note to ask her about it but now wasn't the time.

Lt Amy Forsen went and carried out her orders, leaving a message in all of the departments. She looked down and realized a speck of blood had soaked through her shirt. She silently gasped. She had started to fall backwards. She had cut.

She was thrown to the floor as was everyone in the CIC when an explosion rocked the ship. Pain shot through her arm as her wrist snapped. She realized that it was dislocated. She tried to get up using the tactical console as a counterweight. As she got to her feet she looked at the damage. The Energizer for the flight pods had blown. The engines were okay and most of the ship was intact.

"Damage Report!" shouted Admiral Riggs as he steadied himself.

"Several sections have been sealed off due to the explosion, the flight pod energizer just blew, no report on casualties" she said as she relayed the rest of the report.

"Contact Zeus and Venturous. Get us aboard and have the marines get to those areas along with medical teams." "Goddamn when does it end, one problem right after the other' thought Riggs as he shook his head

"How many people were in those sections lieutenant?" Asked Riggs with great concern.

Lieutenant Forsen just looked at him with her deep blue eyes that were so filled with pain and sorrow.

"Around three hundred sir, waiting on the initial reports sir"

ZEUS

"Affirmative, transfer of flag by Admiral Riggs to the universal confirmed." said Admiral McNamara as he acknowledged the flag ship of Riggs was changed for the time being. The Venturous had already taken the Therion in and the crew had been ordered to take some shore leave on cloud four.

COMFORT

Major Jessica Burton had been transferred from the Therion to the Comfort due to psychological trauma. The Medic's had been able to save the Lieutenant and Admiral Riggs had been to see her few times offering support and a hand if she needed it. She just couldn't stop crying and sleeping with the light on. Her sidearm stayed under her pillow.

CLOUD FOUR

Lieutenant Amy Forsen walked the artificial sand of the beach on cloud four. Everything aboard was simulated but she needed to fell the sand under her feet again. The sand itself was real but the skyline and the simulated ocean wasn't. She missed the breeze of the Caprican Beaches and the smell of the sea. Her father had been a fisherman and she had loved the sea since her father had taken her out at the age of seven. She walked out and headed to the bar to be with Lt Haley Aaron and Lt Jessica Brooke. They had become friends after a long night in the Infirmary in the days after the attacks.

Captain Paige Terrence was now at the point where she could finally walk again with crutches. Her wrist still hurt and she exercised it every morning. Lt Stark was still on the Comfort healing a lot faster than she was. They found themselves spending a lot of time together and they often stayed up late simply talking and laughing. The doctors had seen them hug but never kiss. They hadn't. But she couldn't help but long for it. Over the last three weeks she had grown more close to him than any other man before. He knew more about her than most, even her close friends. She had always been withdrawn and shy but that had changed after her days in the fleet academy.

In a separate part of the Cloud four luxury liner, other members of the Therion's crew went about their leave and relaxed. Cloud Four had narrowly survived the attacks themselves. At the time she had been carrying several celebrities and wealthy individuals. Many had now gone to other ships to gain influence and some remnant of what they once had.

Lieutenant Michael Wilson looked at Haley Aaron with an awestruck look. He was amazed at her beauty. While they were co-pilots he had never seen her in civilian clothes before. She saw him looking at her and blushed. He quickly averted his gaze and looked at his drink. She was beautiful. He had never seen her like this before. While he had been a lady's man in his fleet academy days and even more so before, he had never stayed with a woman for more than a few months. But tonight he thought to himself maybe it's time to change. He silently scooted over and began to talk to her. She smiled as he talked, her eyes sparkling once again.

A young group of rowdy pilots walked into the bar and sat down at the stools.

Ensign Cody Carroll was ready. He was ready to take on the cylons and get some revenge. His class had been completing their viper qualifications with the fifth fleet when they had been ambushed by the cylons at the battle of Caster. The training ship had been ordered to retreat and provide protection for the non-combat ships. He was the best pilot by far out of their group. And he couldn't wait to get in the cockpit and prove it. In his mind he was invincible, as strong as Ares and ready to kick some ass. His assignment was to the Therion to replace a loss to the Fighting Falcons. The squadron had suffered eight losses during an engagement with the cylons. They're had been a critical shortage of pilots in the weeks following the attacks. He was just filling the gaps. But for now he would have to endure the next two weeks on Cloud four while the Therion was repaired. As he and his friend walked into the bar they saw a group of Lieutenants talking in the corner. He smiled at them and they got shy smiles on their faces and looked away. The three women were beautiful he thought. His buddies thought the same.

Lieutenant Michael Wilson and Haley Aaron walked silently down the hallway of Cloud Four, both drunk, both in love. As she opened the door, Michael tripped, landing his hands around her hips. Her eyes were so beautiful he thought as they kissed and he closed the door and moved over to the bed.

Lieutenant Amy Forsen walked over to the bar to pay for her drink with Lt Jessica Brooke beside her. Lt Marissa Stas was already drunk and being supported by Brooke

"You know what we need; we need three guys and a nice room." Said Brooke as she paid

"Yeah I'm not so sure I want that." she said as she too paid. She had said it nervously a fact not missed by Brooke.

"What?" Said Brooke practically screaming it.

"I'm still a Virgin" Amy said sheepishly looking down. While she knew she was beautiful she still didn't want any distractions in her job.

Jessica smiled and said

"Well we end that tonight sweetheart, let's go"

"No wait, Jessica come on, really?" said Amy laughing as Jessica pulled her out towards the beach laughing the entire way.

"Yeah really" she said laughing hysterially

COMFORT- TWO WEEKS LATER

Lieutenant Jacob Stark took off the cast. It had been four weeks since he had broken it. Now he was ready. Ready to be a Marine Again. Of course now he was on the Therion and in charge of the ships quick reaction force of Marines. But he was ready for it.

Captain Paige Terrence finally had her cast off, the leg was almost fully healed and in another four weeks she would be able to walk all on her own again without the crutches or a cane. She looked in the mirror at her face and began to brush her hair as she prepared to get some sleep once more on the ship she had come to call home the last four weeks.

Lieutenant Amy Forsen walked with her arm around James Carson's. They had known each other for a while and two weeks ago her and Jessica had cornered him and a new ensign and asked them to go out and have a drink. All four of them had had the same idea and it wasn't long before Lieutenant Amy Forsen had lost her virginity. Later she found that he was everything she wanted. For the last two weeks they had spent it all together, getting to know each other and becoming closer. She had come out of her depression and she was finally happy again. She and Jessica had gone on several double dates and a few triple dates with Stas.

Ensign Cody Carroll had had the same thing happen to him. He had fallen in love with Lieutenant Jessica Brooke after that long night. At first it had been slow, but like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it just keep gaining steam and eventually lost control. After hours of talking, laughing and sleeping together, they too had gotten to know each other and now as they prepared to head back to the Therion, finally repaired and ready for action again, he couldn't help but want a few more hours with her alone.

Major Jessica Burton had slowly allowed herself to be comfortable around men again. After two weeks of intensive therapy. She always had her sidearm with her and in easy reaches and she kept a light on whenever she slept.

THERION 6 WEEKS AFTER THE FALL

With the crew settling in again after nearly three weeks of leave aboard Cloud Four, Admiral Riggs thought it was time for a drill. They had been hiding near the asteroid field for the last three weeks while the fleet was organized and repairs were conducted. So far a limited government had been set up, which exercised the office of the president in her absence. A fleet police force had been established as well as news services and regular transportation between vessels. A fleet registry and tally would be done in the coming days.

"Lieutenant Forsen set condition two, sound action stations, begin our lovely six hours of drills" he said with the sarcasm obvious.

"Yes Sir" she said smiling.

For the next two days they drilled back to proficiency.

Lieutenant Haley Aaron walked up and hopped into her raptor. She smiled and gave her ECO a kiss as they suited up.

"Ready to have some fun?" he said as he put his helmet on.

"Depends on what kind of fun you have in mind?" she said in a sexual tone of voice. Michael just laughed and went through the checklist.

CIC

Her mind kept drifting, she had missed one contact already but she couldn't stop thinking about Lieutenant James Carson and the way he had moved all over her those nights. She wanted it again. Suddenly the Dradis screen went blank. She frowned; the simulation ran all by itself with the computer creating random scenarios. The screen had just gone blank and no Dradis jumps had been detected but one. Then it hit her, her eyes went wide just as Admiral Riggs said "Lieutenant what happened to the Dradis?" The XO was already walking over to her to see what was wrong.

"Dradis Contact, single Cylon Raider bearing three-one-one Coram two-Niner six. CBDR on the Acheron. No Drill Repeat no Drill single Raider." she yelled as the room snapped into action, the crew instantly anticipating the orders from the commander.

"Emergency recalls all vipers, bring the ship about and have bow batteries stand by for enemy suppression barge." Ordered Riggs as Colonel Branson took his station.

"Action Stations, Action Stations, Set Condition One throughout the ship, this is not a drill, repeat not a drill. Action Stations, Action Station Set Condition One, Not a Drill Repeat this is not a Drill" the Comm. Officer said over the PA as she relayed to the vipers

"All Therion Vipers, emergency recall, single cylon raider at your four o'clock position. This is not a drill repeat not a drill."

"Sir Flagship is signaling for us to take the lead" Said Forsen as she read off the orders

"Very well, bring us about and prepare to engage the enemy" Said the Admiral in a gruffly voice.

FIGHTING FALCONS

"Alright all vipers on me. Let's waste this Frakker." Said the squadron Commander as he rolled his viper 30 degrees to the right and moved in at attack speed.

"Yeah baby, come on. We got this in the bag already." Said Lieutenant Carson as he formed up on his squadron leader.

"Vipers stick to your wingman, don't get cocky, open ranks….. And engage!" Said Captain Wilder as he began the dogfight with a volley of rounds from his cannons that missed narrowly.

"My turn" said Lt James "Header" Carson as he lined up and fired, missing just barely. Suddenly the Raider flipped and fired. The rounds missed his viper by a hair and he pulled out as his wingman fired blindly to break the Raiders concentrated burst of tracers.

Lieutenant Marissa Stas lined up on the raider and fired just as it swerved. Her rounds never came close.

"Damn it this frakkers good" she said as another viper fired.

CIC BATTLESTAR THERION

"Sir civilian ships have begun to jump, ETA till all are away is sixteen minutes." Said Lt Forsen as she too listened to the dogfight

"…Header, raiders coming about on your six, watches it…"

"….He's on my six, I can't shake him…"

"…Header, butterfly, break right on my mark… three two one, Mark!" the rounds could be heard over the speakers

"Damn it I missed. This bastard knows how to move" Admiral Riggs winced, this had to end now or it would jump out and they would have a dozen baseships bearing down on them inside of ten minutes.

"…. This is tailgate, engaging" again the rounds could be heard "…. Clipped him, raiders hit… I think I hit his jump drive"

"…Lets finish the bastard" Said one pilot as he rolled into the fight

"….This is header I got him lined up…firing….. Yeah! Splash one toaster. HaHa" The CIC erupted into cheers as the raider blinked from the Dradis.

"What's the status of the fleet?" asked the Admiral as he smiled celebrating the victory in his head.

"Fleets jumping now, ETA till all ships have jumped is ten minutes" Said Lt Forsen as she released a sigh of relief. She would have a little extra something to celebrate with James to tonight, his first kill.

"Recover our fighters. Let's commence evasive jumping away from the asteroid belt. I don't want the cylons to find us again."

"They're gonna notice there missing patrol sir" Said the XO

"Well that's why we're gonna be long gone when they do"

"Flagship to all vessels, prepare for jump. Coordinates to follow." said Lt Forsen.

"XO as soon as the jumps are complete, I want to meet with all the senior commanders and ship captains in the wardroom. And the civilian legislative to, whatever her name is." Said Admiral Riggs as the ships began to jump away

"Yes sir. Have something in mind sir?" asked Colonel Branson as he looked at his commanding officer

"As a matter of fact I do" said the Admiral as he walked off. Thinking about the shape of things to come.

_Please do review, I revised a few things here and there added some more details, but I know I have a lot more to improve on so don't hesitate to let me know! Chapter 2 up soon!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Review after you finish reading please! Would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy the story_

8 WEEKS AFTER THE ATTACKS- BATTLESTAR THERION-

Admiral Jason Riggs stood silently on the observation deck of the battlestar Therion. Silently thinking of all the men and women he had lost over the last eight weeks. Wishing he could go back and change everything. With just twelve battlestars left, thirty-two cruisers, forty-eight fast attack frigates, and thirty destroyers along with forty two defenders all to guard six thousand civilian ships, totaling over two million people. So many had died during the last eight weeks, from shock, from battle and from lack of space and resources, he wished he could just go back and change it all. He was responsible for each and every single one of them. There was no denying in his mind that each death was partly his fault, he wanted to do more. There just wasn't anything left to do.

CIC- Battlestar Ares

"It's unbelievable isn't it?" said Commander Christopher Williams as he walked the deck of the now combat ready Battlestar Ares. Ares had been found by Lt. Haley Aaron's raptor on a patrol scouting for resources. When they had come across the battlestar she had been heavily damaged and adrift. With no power there was no way to communicate with the ship and they had been forced to board it.

"Yes sir it is, never thought it would be a friendly fleet finding us, much less with a mobile dock" said his XO as he took in the pristine look of the ship that formerly he had thought doomed.

"Yeah, a god damn miracle from the gods themselves" Said Williams "But I'm not complaining, means I get to put some lead into some toasters then so be it"

The Ares had been fully restored by the crew of Venturous. Fully equipped with a full air wing and crew compliment and most of all the ship was finally ready to leave the dock and join the defensive patrol. They just needed the word from the admiralty

CAPRICA

A Six Model stood on the observation deck of Caprica's most famous luxury resort. She was thinking. Wishing. Hoping. Most importantly she was planning. For both the destruction of the Fifth fleet and the other ships with it and the Galactica fleet. She had been delegated by the consensus to deal with the fifth fleet. Recently they had moved the high value prisoners taken after the attacks to the world of Athena. The world had been the site of the main Campus of the Athenian academy. The planet was littered with memorials and statues of the ancient god of wisdom. In total there was over one million. The fours were doing all kinds of experiments and test on them. The Military prisoners thou had been put to use. They had been forced to build structures for the other prisoners, and to begin planting crops. The Cylons had a plan for the Surviving Colonials here. One that would take a long time for them to get use to.

BATTLESTAR THERION -

Admiral Riggs, McNamara, and Keyes were all in the conference room of the Therion going over the fleet status and all of their problems with the other military commanders and the SECDEF. Admiral Keyes spoke first

"Okay first order of business is military forces. Tom?" said Keyes starting off the meeting

"Sir we've got twelve Battlestars they are as follows. The Acheron, Mercury, Zeus Therion, Universal, Nexus, Pacifica, Olympic, Ares, Titan, Prometheus, and the Athena sir. All battlestar crews are up on training and supplies. The crews are anxious to get back in the fight sir. Each ship has a full load of vipers and raptors. Pilots are a problem thou, were at 60 percent load for pilots. Right now sir there is more planes than pilots. Mostly that's due to the Military transports that were carrying Viper squadrons off of the production lines to new bases or assignments. And I hate to say it but training new viper pilots to efficiency does take some time" said Admiral McNamara reading off a report

"We'll start a recruitment program throughout the fleet to replenish our numbers. What's the status of the civilians?" asked Keyes taking in the military situation and moving on.

"We'll Sir we've actually reduced the number of ships flying to about 3,500. Some ships were small enough to dock with the larger ones or we transported their passengers and used them for spare parts if they were damaged too much. The civilian government is up and running basically their going off the idea that the fleet is more or less a mobile colony so to speak. They want elections for a temporary governor sir. A civilian police force composed of either retired cops or active ones that were traveling or managed to get off the surface is up and running. They're training new members now sir. They should take over complete security of the civilian fleet within the coming days."

"What about the kid's sir?" asked Commander Tanner, who had two of her own that were killed in the attacks.

"We've got one thousand one hundred and eighty ships that have been designated as family-friendly ships. The kids are taught using some old textbooks that were in a storage container being set to be recycled on Aerilon. Were way short on teachers thou but a lot of people have stepped up to do their best to educate the kids sir. The rest of the ships are container ships, storage vessels, Agro ships and mining ships. We don't want kids on those ships sir. The ones we have them placed on have the ability to jump rapidly most within three minutes sir." Said Admiral McNamara as he looked for the right file.

"That's good. We'll coordinate with this new police force for security of the elections that'll take place eventually. I want an emphasis placed on our kids' education. It is paramount to our survival! Now what about food and water?" asked the SECDEF as he took in the situation. He knew that if they were to continue as a powerful species as they were then they would have to educate their children or they would begin to regress and they could ill afford that now.

"We have several ships that can produce foods from vegetables to meat. Some water recycling ships and even some ships that we're turning into livestock vessels. Many ships have water re-supply issues so for now the battlestars are tanking them off. At least until the other ships get their crews adjusted to re-supplying. Most of these ships were not intended for long-range voyages sir. We do have a few water treatment plants that were installing on some of the larger vessels that should be completed soon." Answered Commander Tanner.

"Can they make it though, do we have any food shortages or things of that nature?"

"Some sir. But the Marines are taking care of it. Their giving out water and food wherever they can. Almost all of our ships are pretty much squared away in that regard." Answered McNamara

"What about resources? Where do we stand?" asked Commander Wilson of the Nexus

"Right now our tylium supplies are okay, enough for eight months of continuous operations. Our refinery ships report combined they have enough aboard for about three years. We have more than enough raw materials to repair damage," Answered a young Captain who had been assigned that tasking.

"What about overcrowding?" asked a cruiser captain

"We solved that in the first few days sir. A lot of ships took off from the surface empty handed in the rush to get off the colonies."

"Anything else we need to know about Admiral?" asked Stevenson as he stood. Everyone else did the same. He was senior commander of the fleet, but he had split the fleet into three commands, 1st Fleet under Admiral Keyes with the Acheron, Universal, Mercury and Titan. The 1st fleet would be a heavy hitter unit. All Mercury class battlestars except for the Titan. The 2nd fleet would be under Admiral Riggs with the Therion, Ares, Nexus and the Olympic. All Mercury class Battlestars with one purpose- to hit the enemy hard. Except for the Nexus, which was the predecessor to the Mercury class and the successor to the Valkyrie class battlestar, it was a cross between the two classes, which bridged the gap between their development stages. The ship was twice as big as a Valkyrie class with a crew of four thousand, twice the weapons, but with less speed and maneuverability. The ship had extra armor plating to protect her engines, which on the Valkyrie is extremely vulnerable. Thus the armor plating and added defensive turrets ringing them to provide additional protection. The Mercury class had all of the advantages of the Nexus Class and the Valkyrie class battlestars. This was why so many of them had survived the holocaust. They were extremely well armored and their systems had all been what were considered top of the line on par with the Titan Class. Their weapon batteries were strategically emplaced throughout the ship to provide the maximum amount of firepower in every direction. Their flight pods had been radically redesigned for maximum efficiency for their air wing. The hanger deck had a complete new layout from her predecessors, allowing for an unprecedented amount of vipers to be carried and used efficiently. The Titan class battlestars had been an attempt to improve even further on the success of the Mercury class. Adding a further set of flight pods on top of the hull. Her hull had been elongated and her armor reinforced to nearly 18 meters thick. A standard Mercury class battlestars armor was 14 meters thick. They had been built to take a lot of punishment. The third fleet was under Admiral McNamara with his flagship the Zeus a Mercury class, the Pacifica, another Mercury class and then the Prometheus and Athena both Valkyrie class battlestars. McNamara's fleet was responsible for scouting out the enemy, and then running hit and run attacks on targets of opportunity that presented themselves. So far they had launched four, destroying several cylon staging areas and baseships with minimal casualties. They were the guerilla unit. The light but fast hitters. They went in fast with guns blazing, bringing all they could into the fight. With very good results so far. The first and second fleets had not run attacks as of yet. They were still drilling, getting the crews coordinated, each commander learning the others tactics, strengths and weaknesses. They were almost ready to begin the operations that they had planned. The Cruisers and Frigates however had not been assigned to any fleets, it was decided that they would be assigned to a command based on necessity and situation. So for now it was decided they would remain independent operators until a Cruiser, frigate, destroyer fleet would be constituted under a new admiral comprising the 4th Fleet. The Admirals just hadn't picked a new commander yet. Although a commander of a Battlestar was not likely, they were looking for anyone who fit the role.

"No Sir nothing else really. I'm finished." said McNamara as he gathered all of his papers.

"Okay people, for now let's keep running on our current operations. Admiral McNamara will be giving you all an intelligence packet later on. All gathered from their latest attacks." said Keyes as he dismissed the meeting of all ship commanders.

"So what do you think of the elections Jason?" asked Keyes as he sat back down.

"Well sir…" he was interrupted by Keyes.

"Damn it Riggs, when were alone call me Scott okay? It's okay every now and then to call your CO by his first name." Keyes knew that junior commanders hated doing that. It felt awkward for them. Weird even. Which was why he did it. His commanders had done it to him. It was almost a tradition for the Admiralty to it to their subordinates.

"That goes for me too there Jason" said Stevenson as he sat down as well

"Uh yes sir. Anyways I was thinking it was a good idea, appease the people sort of. I do not like the idea of martial law. Our purpose is to protect the people not rule them. That's what government is for and there's a reason I stayed out of it sir" said Riggs as he poured a glass of amborsia for all of them

All three men laughed at the comment.

"I agree but martial Law is unacceptable. We need a working government, of some sorts anyway. To manage what we can't. I am glad that the Police force is up and running. Last thing we needed is the Marines having to go in and restore order. We'd have another Aerilon Massacre." said McNamara

The other three admirals agreed with him.

"But we have to make them realize that all military decisions rest with us. As a collective of course. In the event we split on that matter two and two we'll go to this council their setting up and see their decision. Agreed?" said Scott Keyes as he poured a glass of water for himself. The other two nodded in agreement.

THERION- REC Room

Lt James Carson was sitting down playing cards with Ensign Cody Carroll and Lt Michael Wilson when they had company. Haley went to Mike, Jessica to Cody, and Amy to him. He smiled seeing her. Each time he felt like his heart skipped a beat when he did see her. He didn't know what it was that made him feel like that but he liked it. They all felt that way. Truthfully she was what kept him going now. He had lost almost everything in the attacks, except his friends aboard the Therion many who had died later on. It was the same for nearly all of them, they relied on each other to keep them strong. It was something common to all who wore the uniform. They were each other's anchors. They kept each other going. Almost like a bubble for the group, as long as they had each other they would keep going until the end.

Captain Paige Terrence had been assigned to the Therion as Admiral Riggs's aid. She was ordered to do courier runs. But he too like Corman had started offering tips and ideas to her. The Admiral saw something in her both of them had, she just couldn't see it herself. She and Lt Forsen worked at the Tactical Station together feeding off each other's expertise and knowledge learning from each other. They had become quick friends. She had met Lt Brooke and Lt Stas a few days ago and liked them a lot. They had all gone on a date with their significant others one night, their boys ending up wrestling over classic fleet rivalry, Fleet versus Marine. She smiled at the memory, cherishing the bonds of friendship she was growing.

Admiral Jason Riggs was in the War room with McNamara and Keyes, planning an OP no one else knew about. They had even taken steps to ensure that no one else knew. Posting Marines all along the corridor. They were secretly planning the rescue of POW's on a penal Colony the cylons had deemed fit to use as a prison and some type of experimental lab. They had made a crucial mistake in not leaving it heavily defended. The base did however have a garrison of some three hundred thousand centurions according to their best estimate. But they had heard of a high value colonial prisoner being held there. Believed to be an admiral. This is why they were planning it in secret. No one could know for fear of a potential cylon agent discovering the plan and exposing it, and fear of the civilian's disproval.

CIC

"Sir Dradis contact it's our raptor scout. On schedule they report no enemy activity"

"Bring em on home Lieutenant" Said Branson.

"Yes Sir" said Forsen as she radioed instructions to the Raptor.

Admiral McNamara was chatting with Commander Amy Barnes aboard the Comfort inviting her over for a friendly match of tennis on cloud four. He had grown to like her, and he could tell she felt the same. Especially after the last few stressful weeks, his fleet had been going on hit and run attacks on the Cylons twelve times now. Each time more dangerous than the next. The amount of wounded was staggering, but thankfully little dead.

RAPTOR 293 PATROL NEAR PRISON COLONY

Lt Haley "star" Aaron was on a raptor patrol near the Athena moon when four new baseships jumped in, her patrol time was twelve hours she had been here for three. 'Great' she thought the number of baseships over the prison moon had just doubled. Suddenly her Raptor was intercepting communications from the baseships to the planet. Another advantage of being so heavily modified of a battlestar was that her upgrades had included experimental raptors like hers capable of intercepting communications on even the most secure channels. She read the Message as the computer decrypted it. With each line decrypted she grew increasingly excited.

_Basestar 312 to planetary forces_

_Update on colonial forces as of two hours ago_

_Three Colonial Cruisers destroyed near Cyrannus asteroid field._

_No Update on colonial Fifth Fleet's whereabouts. Last engagement near sector 25 Bravo quadrant 4. _

_Threat from fifth fleet evaluated as high based on profiles of commanding officers_

_Single Resurrection ship destroyed by unknown Colonial vessel believed to be stealth ship. _

_Three basestars also destroyed._

_Due to destruction of resurrection ship, all Cylon Forces are ordered to retreat back to Cylon Space. Leave Prisoners alive. Centurions will remain on planet. Orbital forces are to fall back to Defensive positions and maintain. . Threat of attack from Fifth Fleet identified as extremely high loss of life resulting from loss of resurrection ship deemed high due to fifth fleet activities. Estimated time until new resurrection ship operational fourteen days._

Star Gasped as she read the message and proceed to intercept five more.

Nine hours later she jumped back home having watched the Cylons in orbit jump away. She did several passes of the prison camps and confirmed the continued presence of centurions but other than that nothing. When she jumped back to the fleet she contacted the Therion and told them she had gathered very important intelligence and requested immediate clearance to land

WAR ROOM THERION

The Commanders of the fleet looked on as they read the intelligence packet assembled before them. Governor Amanda Parson was shocked at the report. Such Barbary, such devastation.

"How many are on this planet, do we know?"

"Estimated one to three Million" said Riggs

"We can't rescue that many people sir, we don't have the resources" said Commander Wilson of the Nexus.

"I know we don't, but we have an obligation to these people. We all took an oath. It's time to fulfill that oath and get them out of that hell hole" said Riggs with a dead serious look on his face, they could all tell he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"If we don't have the Resources then I guess were going to have to get them wouldn't you say?" said the SECDEF speaking for the first time since the meeting began.

"How sir? Our ships can't even hold that many people, much less support them. Food water, it's not possible." said McNamara shaking his head.

"Yes it is" said Commander Sammie Tanner of the Olympic. "The same way we got the Olympic"

"My gods that could work" said McNamara as began to think.

"We'll have to send over Marines to each and every ship to make sure they don't have cylons on board waiting, the Cylons did it to the Olympic who's to say they didn't do it to the other battlestars out there or the civilian ships" said Riggs planning it out carefully not wanting any surprises or uncertainty's. Too many lives counted on it.

"Get with General Mayville, begin planning to get those ships back" said Admiral Stevenson

"Yes Sir" said Riggs as he went to the other war room and began to plan.

"Wait one commander Barnes." Said Keyes as he took out a box and slid it over to her.

As Barnes picked it up and opened it, she was shocked. "Congratulations Admiral. You deserve them. You're in charge of the medical corps," said Keyes his eyes beaming with pride in her. Keyes could see she was shocked and didn't expect it. But he thought she deserved it.

"Thank you sir. I won't let you down" said Barnes as she saluted and headed back to her ship, smiling the whole way. She had just made flag rank, something she had never thought possible in her career. Her divorce had tarnished her reputation and she had thought it would hinder her ability to advance further.

"That was nice sir." Said McNamara smiling too, knowing she had indeed deserved it. Keyes nodded and walked over to Colonel Stanley and gave him another box.

"Colonel Stanley, as of right now I'm promoting you to the rank of Commander. Your now Commanding officer of the Cruiser fleet." said Keyes as he pinned the Commanders pin on his uniform with pride and snapped of a perfect salute.

"Thank you sir, it's an honor" said Stanley as he smiled and then returned the salute. He was ecstatic at the opportunity.

"The Honor is mine." Said Keyes

TWO DAYS LATER

The Therion appeared near the Trevor moon, a graveyard of colonial ships disabled and floating in orbit of the moon. Deploying her Vipers she began scanning the field for cylons. Detecting none the ship sent out a signal and dozens of other military vessels appeared. With the fleet safe hidden inside of a nebula Field surrounding a planet undetectable by Dradis or other means of detection, the military had decided to go out and get some things done. The nebula had only three entrances, all now heavily guarded by several defenders and Cruisers. The fleet wasn't settling on the planet as of yet. Instead they were in orbit over one of the surrounding moons while the battlestars got them more ships. The three thousand civilian ships were grouped loosely around the system. Feeling safe for the first time in weeks since the attacks.

The Marine boarding ships approached battlestar after battlestar each ship depositing three hundred Marines into the lifeless ships. Totaling five more battlestars, two Nexus class, two Mercury's and another Valkyrie class. There were twelve other battlestars but they didn't have the personnel to man them. With each battlestar having two thousand more crewmembers than needed they easily had enough for six more battlestars. They had rescued many of the crew of the captured battlestars from POW camps when the Marines overran them during the first week of ground fighting. It wasn't long before the Marine Boarders reported they were in contact with centurions aboard the ships and heavy ship board action was underway.

Elsewhere McNamara's third fleet was raiding fleet munitions depots and storage sites, filling up civilian and military cargo ships to the brim with military gear and equipment. They raided a total of thirty six different sites over five days. The Marines had secured hundreds of large heavy transports, each capable of transporting at least two thousand people. They had enough room now for a total of six million people. More than they needed but enough so that they wouldn't be overcrowded. At least not heavily. They had focused on Argo and mining vessels. They had enough to get the people off the surface and the military force to do it, they just needed the go ahead from the admiralty and the wise planning and a strategy to reduce casualties.

THERION WAR ROOM

The Senior Admirals and Commanders of the fleet had assembled in the war room for a pre-mission briefing. Governor Amanda Parson was with them taking it all in and asking questions when the need arose.

"Our Initial entry into the system will be a large decoy force to draw out any enemy surprise they may have. The Nexus will then proceed to position point Deacon where she will proceed to deploy raptors and Vipers as part of the initial attack force. Hopefully the Cylons will think that's all we'll bring. The Colonial 7th Army Division will be our first heavy unit on the ground. Their job is to draw the enemy out away from the civilians, hopefully into these fields here where general Manchester's Marines will be waiting. It'll be the 43rd 18th and 39th Marine Divisions. Once the cylons are out in the open, the Mercury, Titan and Acheron will jump in with fourteen cruisers and begin an orbital bombardment. The Cruisers will at least. The Battlestars will provide security and AWACS support. Deploying vipers for close air support, now most of the fighting will be on the ground. So far, we have no indication the Cylon fleet has returned to Colonial space. We have no indication that there anywhere near it actually. Our patrols throughout the colonies reveal no enemy capital ships present throughout the system."

"Do we know why they left at all?" asked Parson trying to understand.

"They left due to the fact that something called a Resurrection ship was destroyed. By whom we don't know, but we think it was one of Nagala's stealth programs, he was really big on secret programs and operations."

"What's the Status of the fleet? Are we prepared in the event the Cylons do show up?" asked Branson, who had been given temporary command of the battlestar Icarus.

"We're going off the assumption that the fleet can hold the entrances to the nebula. They'll buy us time to retreat from the surface and evacuate."

"If not?" said Parson clearly concerned

"Then were going to have a lot of dead ma'am, we advised you against settling on the surface for a reason ma'am" said the SECDEF

"That's a risk everyone down there willingly took. They know what could happen" said Parson defensively.

"Okay people let's stay on subject. Admiral McNamara how many troops will we deploy to rescue the civilians?" asked Keyes

"All of them sir. 578,000 Marines and Soldiers sir. We want to overwhelm and destroy the enemy as quick as possible with as little casualties as possible." said McNamara answering the senior admiral's question surprising him.

"Can we deploy that many ground pounders?" asked Commander Batista, the CO of the Mercury. She had been in command for about two weeks before the attacks. Having proved herself in the chaotic hours and days after by leading her ship and keeping it intact and its crew alive. Her ship had been found by the Pegasus but they had later been separated after launching an attack on a cylon fleet. The Mercury had then jumped to Aerilon and rendezvoused with the fifth fleet units there. Admiral Keyes had been aboard to see how she was doing in her new command but was incapacitated during the attack.

"It'll take six waves for us to do it, but yes we can." said McNamara

"What's our plan in case the Cylon fleet should show up?" asked Parson as she looked around.

"We'll have Raptors deployed to the Colonies, not only to look for survivors that may come back but to watch for the Cylons if they do come back. Part of their retreat may be to lure us into a false sense of security and then come back and destroy us. But we doubt they'll go for the prison world once my fleet begins its attack on the colonies themselves. At best it will divide the cylon fleet if they do come back" said Riggs knowing full well the cylons had learned the art of deceit well from their creators. However, they hadn't mastered it quite yet.

"What about if they come back to the Planet and attack our forces there while were evacuating the prison world" she said worried about the possibility.

The three admirals just smiled. The Commanders around the table looked at each other for a second wondering if their Commanding officers had gone insane for a second.

"Why are you smiling admirals?" said Parson confused

"You know what the best part about being in command is Governor?" said Keyes

"What?" she said getting more confused. She wasn't the only one thou as many other commanders looked at him.

"That you don't have to explain yourself," said Keyes. "Now this meeting is adjourned. Commanders of all ships will receive their instructions for this operation. Once you have them execute them in sequence and do not, I repeat do not, execute the last one until we have confirmation. You'll know what I'm talking about when you read your orders"

The Commanders all dismissed and returned to their ships, when they got to their quarters each read their orders. Many were surprised by them. Others overjoyed to finally be taking the fight to the enemy.

TWO DAYS LATER

D-DAY H-HOUR - 15 Minutes

"Sir we have confirmation all units are ready for operation Rolling Lighting." said Captain Forsen. She had been promoted by Riggs during the fleet re-organization. She had welcomed the promotion. Lt Brooke and Stas hadn't stopped teasing her about it yet. Lt James Caron had teased her too, but she had liked that. It had been 10 weeks since the attacks and she was feeling a lot better than she had in a while. She looked across the room to Captain Terrence and gave her thumbs up and she nodded.

"Commence Stage one. Let's go get em" said Riggs as the ship jumped.

ATHENA- CYLON POW CAMP

On a warm sunny day on a world formerly known as Athena to the Colonials, a world of pristine beauty and paradise, it was a resort world where only the richest of the rich went. The planet had been transformed into a deadly prison. In the command center of that prison a model six cylon looked up in shock.

"We have at least fifteen ships coming into range, identified as Colonial battlestars!" Said a Six going into shock.

"Where the hell did they come from?" asked a Cavil

"Oh gods, we don't have the force necessary to defeat them. Nowhere close to it. The fleet won't be back for another three days," said an Eight worried more than she had ever been in her robotic life.

"Gods what do we do" said a four, knowing this time they would really be dead.

"We fight as best we can, order the Centurions to take defensive positions, lock down the Camp, and put all the Prisoners in their cells. All of them" said a Number one as he walked out to oversee his orders.

ORBIT

The Decoy force proceeded on unopposed. Seeing no large enemy force deployed the Commander of the Nexus Commander Wilson ordered the Nexus to jump in front of the decoy force and begin to launch vipers. The Vipers would then begin a low orbital assault on selected targets.

With a flash, his orders were carried out. Vipers rocketed out of the launch tubes. Marine Drop ships each carrying three hundred combat ready Marines disembarked and headed for the surface three minutes after the vipers reported they had engaged enemy fighters and positions. The vipers had essentially stirred up the hornets' nest.

"Sir we have no large enemy forces deploying what so ever. In total there's about twenty eight hundred raiders deployed. However, their scattered throughout the system sir. I show no more than that on Dradis sir" said the Nexus Tactical officer

"Send a signal to the flagship give him the update." said Wilson, pleased with the news

"Yes sir"

ACHERON

"Admiral, Nexus reports no large enemy presence, her vipers have engaged and drop ships are on the way to the surface now"

"Jump us in and prep to launch fighters" ordered Keyes glad the Nexus wouldn't take too much damage.

The Acheron appeared over the world with the Mercury and Titan instantly launching hundreds of vipers and Raptors. The Titan launched two dozen drop ships from within its bays and the slots on its underside where they hook up to the ship and wait to drop. The battlestar acting as a drop ship for the Marines.

MARINE DROP SHIP ENROUTE TO THE PLANET

Marine Lt Jacob Stark tightened the restraints holding him as the ship was buffeted with more anti-aircraft fire. 'Gods this is intense' he thought as the drop continued on through the enemy weapons fire.

"One minute!" shouted the loadmaster as the ship continued it's decent.

"Here we go! Stay frosty! Check your fire coming out!" Shouted the troop first sergeant

'Paige is gonna kill me for volunteering for this' he thought as they touched down. He had heard a platoon was without an officer and one was needed for the upcoming mission. He had volunteered to lead the platoon for the mission.

The doors slammed hard to the ground as the drop ship landed. Screaming at the top of their lungs the marines charged out the door into the face of the enemy.

2 MILES AWAY LZ X-RAY

The Initial attack had worked in drawing out the cylons. Thirty thousand Centurions were marching to the field three miles away from the Main camp to engage the Marines there. They were out in the open thou and easy targets for the Cruiser gunners who began firing High impact incendiary rounds. Each detonating about twelve feet before they hit the ground for a devastating explosion each taking out dozens of centurions. The initial bombardment was so large it shook the ground for miles. The Prisoners at that point knew their rescuers had arrived at last.

LZ X-ray was situated directly behind the enemy prison facilities away from the cylon ground troops who were now advancing to the northeast. The 29th Marine Expeditionary Unit circled around the camp and laid down suppressing fire as more and more troops landed at the embattled Landing zone.

Circling around a hill the men of Alpha Company used their brief respite from the hell of combat to reload their weapons and chug water. Once again they charged forward using the terrain as cover, the enemy watch towers long since destroyed by the vipers. As they neared the wall mortars began striking all around them forcing them back to their hill. They would repeat the charge six more times.

The Marines were simply put drawing the enemy's fire and being used as a diversion away from the helpless POW's who had no means to defend themselves. The walls to the prison were too high for the Marines to scale; heavy explosives would be required to bring them down. But that equipment was only just now getting on the ground an hour into the battle. Centurions were being cut down by well-aimed fire from the Marines who had now established clear fields of fire and lethal kill zones where they drew the enemy in and initiated heavy bursts of concentrated fire into the group that would come out to engage.

The 47th Infantry Division, the same division that had held off the cylons for five days near the Piconese mountain range had formed up on the ground and was moving to engage nearly ten thousand centurions who had been dispatched after the initial attack force. The 47th would perform a two attack maneuver, the division basically forking itself off at the initial point of contact and slowly encircling the enemy, bypassing major resistance points in favor of attrition by small attacks followed on by an artillery barrage and then a major assault that split the enemy down the middle. The tanks of the 47th rolled through the enemy lines and in less than six hours had wiped out the ten thousand centurions who had marched out to meet them. They took very few casualties.

Massive battles began in and around the Prisons that housed the millions of captured prisoners. Very few Marines had managed to breach the perimeter walls. The Marines had been assigned the task of getting the civilians off the surface while the Colonial Army dealt with the main Cylon force in the plains ten miles to the north.

The battles had evolved to encompass an area neatly fifty miles wide and thirty deep. It was near total chaos to the untrained eye. For the Army and Marine generals, it was a field day. They had numerical, air, and firepower superiority. Their only goal was to limit casualties to the minimum, while it would take far longer to eliminate what enemy forces remained the cylons had lost when the first shots had been fired, and they knew it.

The ships in orbit were providing what little support they could, in the form of their very large caliber guns that punched 500 meter holes into the ground with a tremendous explosion.

The cell shook violently with each hit. Admiral Peter Corman managed to lift his head above the cell window and looked out to see the smoke trails of the rounds and witness them strike. He smiled with every hit knowing it was the fleet, hoping that maybe they hadn't lost as bad as he thought.

Each of the prisoners was hoping the same thing. They had all been brought here because the cylons had thought them as either an inspirational force that could be used against them or they were a government official or someone the cylons evaluated as more likely to resist them. The prison was maximum security, but even a maximum-security prison couldn't keep five hundred thousand Marines and soldiers out which were only now beginning to breach the outer walls and collapse the cylons security perimeter.

The seventh Infantry Division of the Colonial Army began its attack on the remaining cylon centurions that had rushed to their own defeat. It took them mere minutes to wipe out the rest of the attackers and proceed to move forward with the Marines Divisions now numbering six on the ground. Fresh troops were pouring in by the minute.

"Let's move, all units form up, scouts head out and report back!"

"Mortars away!"

"Get artillery on those coordinates"

The Marines had approached the prisons rapidly, encircling each and every one of them. By cutting the Prisons off from each other they eliminated the possibility of a massed counterattack that could spell doom for their secure landing zones and command and control areas. If the cylons had managed to leave behind even a small unit to maintain security in the prions and sent the majority of their troops to the LZ's it would have been a completely different story than it was now and their offensive drive would have mostly likely been stalled. The Marines continued to press on to their objectives. Their spotters marking enemy heavy gun batteries with IR Strobes and laser guiders. The ships in orbit relaying the information to the vipers fast approaching. Raptors would land behind the walls depositing Special Forces to call in air strikes and relay information to the attacking marines as they created chaos behind enemy lines.

The First Marine attack on the Main Camp, where the cylon command center was situated, was led by the 43rd Marine Infantry Division. Which began firing its division artillery at pre-selected targets! Then on coordinates provided by their spotters. The Cylons had never anticipated an assault by a fully manned and armed Marine Division. Much less twelve and another fifteen Army Divisions whose equipment was only now getting on the ground. Which as soon as it all was , signified the end of the battle for the Cylons and freedom for the Prisoners. Already the Marines had breached the outer walls of the base. Allowing an enormous amount of firepower to be concentrated on the remaining centurions in the camp, most of which had assumed stations on the outer wall operating heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft batteries. The ones before them had been wiped out by artillery fire and concentrated strafing runs by the vipers. The Colonial Army 2nd Infantry Division rolled up to the gates of the camp and blew them open with a single tank round. Marines and Soldiers poured through the now destroyed gates taking cover as they engaged the centurions around the gates. One Marine would run forward while the other covered, working in tangent with each other, drawing fire, detailing the enemies position and getting close enough to destroy the enemy through concentrated and accurate fire. The Cylons had lost half their defending force of three hundred thousand inside of six hours.

CYLON COMMAND CENTER

"How the Frak did over fifteen Divisions of Colonial troops get here and attack us?" asked Cavil furious at the current situation

"We'll I think it's quite simple." Said a Marine as he fired an explosive round at the centurion in the corner, followed by several more from other Marines as they rushed forward, destroying the armed enemy presence and surrounding the unarmed ones. "We Landed, attacked, kicked your asses and here we are. Simple one two and three" said the Marine as he smiled and shoved the Cavil face first into the ground. The cylons were shocked that they had just been took prisoner. After an hour of fighting block by block and searching every building for any remaining centurions. The Marines radioed to Admiral Keyes "For the Lords, Caprica, Caprica, Caprica, Cylon Command Center has been secured"

Nearly eighteen thousand troops had been wounded in the heavy fighting on the ground. Eleven thousand more lost their lives.

ACHERON

"Yeah! We did it sir; Marines report the Cylon Command Center has been taken. They estimate forty percent of the prisoners are now free and the remaining facilities defensive perimeters are collapsing. Prisoners are ready to be loaded up" said the Tactical officer overjoyed at the reports

"God damn, they're kicking ass sir" Said the XO

"Holy Frak they moved fast" said Keyes. The Transports were already landing picking up now liberated POW's and taking them to the nebula. "Signal the Therion; tell them they are a go"

"Yes Sir"

THERION TASK FORCE

"Let's roll!" Said Riggs after receiving the confirmation from the Acheron

The task force was composed of nine battlestars. The 2nd fleet and the five re-captured battlestars all jumped to Virgon, where the Main Cylon occupying force was believed to be directed from. The Phoenix, the second Titan Class battlestar to have survived the attacks, ironically saved by the CNP Virus, returned to the world it had failed to defend this time as the attacker. With Vipers spewing out of the flight pods, the four thousand cylon raiders and attack ships headed out to meet them from the planet's surface. The fight began with the Phoenix commencing an orbital bombardment of the planets confirmed cylon bases, destroying one and moving on to the next one methodically. The cylons on the ground stood no chance as the massive guns hurled enormous amounts of explosives at them. They had no means of counterattacking; they didn't have a single ship anywhere near the colonies that could do any sort of damage to a Titan Class Battlestar. The resistance forces on the Colonies would hopefully stand a better chance of surviving after their attacks. This was the goal of their mission, to hurt the cylons war effort as much as possible. Riggs was hoping not only would this attack on the colonies divert the cylons from the prison world where the Ground troops were attacking but also to aid the resistance groups on the ground or any surviving military units. The attacks took place on each colony, except Picon and Caprica where the Cylon presence was deemed too high and casualties would be excessive. The fleet however was rampaging throughout the cylon lines, the raiders almost afraid to fight. The viper pilots weren't complaining thou. The raiders had been used to not having to fear death and accepting it as long as they killed vipers and their pilots. Now they had to adapt to fight and stay alive. Something they were finding difficult as more and more of their number fell to enemy fire. The Vipers having noticed the enemy's reluctance to engage directly pressed their attack collectively. Changing the course of the battle at once. The Raiders were soon in full retreat jumping to Picon and Caprica if they could. Most didn't have the fuel after maneuvering against the Colonials. Ten of the twelve Colonies now had no occupying fighter forces. Battlestars, cruisers, defenders, frigates and even raptors were pummeling enemy ground forces. Small units of Marines landed on the surface to make contact with resistance groups.

"Send a signal to the Acheron and asks for an update on the evacuations from the surface?" asked Riggs after they hit Sagatarion and annihilated the Cylon fighter force there.

"Sir signal from the flagship. Admiral Keyes is ordering all colonial units to report back to the Prison world and provide security for the transports, he says we've done all we can for the people on the ground in the colonies sir" said Captain Forsen as she read off the orders and began to plot their jump. Ordering the vipers to cease their attacks on the cylons on the surface and RTB.

"Very well once all vipers are aboard, make sure all ships have jump coordinates and then jump" said Riggs glad he had at least done something for the people on the surface.

"Did the Phoenix complete its mission?" Asked Riggs as he looked over at her, she simply nodded her head in reply.

PRISON WORLD ATHENA - 18 HOURS AFTER THE INVASION

As the fighting continued, more and more Colonial troops were being brought to bear on the ever decreasing cylon army. As units continued to advance seemingly unstoppable, more and more prisoners were liberated. Shuttles and transports now numbering in the thousands were lifting off, standing by or just beginning to land. Soon the Colonial Army and Marine Corps would draw a W on its tally board.

Out of 458 Prison hubs, only nineteen now remained in the hands of the cylons, And barely at that.

In a marine Drash tent two miles behind the front line, General Stanley Griggs looked on as his marines went about their duties and performed excellently. He was beaming with pride. They had surpassed all expectations of the invasion and casualties were far below even their best estimates. The heaviest fighting had ended some time ago as the main enemy force had been soundly defeated. All that remained were isolated pockets of resistance and a few prisons that hadn't been secured yet.

1st PLATOON BRAVO COMPANY 1-87th IN BN

Lieutenant Jacob Stark's temporary command of 48 men had been dwindled down to 31 combat effective Marines; they had taken part in securing twenty nine prisons. They had engaged in multiple counter attacks and engagements over the last eighteen hours. They had been resupplied nearly a dozen times with ammo, water and medical supplies as they advanced. The men were approaching exhaustion, having spent fourteen of the eighteen hours they had been on the planet in combat. The rst of the company wasn't faring much better as they continued to advance further into the bowels of the facility, the very last one.

"Move out, stay low and watch for trip wires and sensors." Said his PSG as he moved ahead.

The Marines slowly came around another corner with the lead man shining his flashlight down the hall. As the Marines continued to advance they witnessed the destroyed remains of Centurions and the bodies of several prisoners who had been the subject of cylon experiments. Twice the unit had stopped to vomit at the sheer grotesque experiments that had been done.

"Contact right!" Shouted a Marine as he immediately dropped to his knee behind a wall. The man behind him instantly stepped up right next to his back so he too could fire. Often called the high-man low-man technique, it allows for two individuals to lay down accurate fire without exposing their vital organs to enemy weapons fire. Too often a hot headed troop tries to advance up a hallway, exposing themselves unnecessarily to enemy fire. The old saying Patience is Key is never more true than in this situation.

The Marines wait as the firing stops. They have done this man times before this day. Once again the cylon turns and in the less than one second it takes for his gun to be brought around, his left side is shredded with nearly two dozen bullets, he collapses dead on the spot. Silence takes the place of gunfire as the Marines listen. The man standing gently squeezes the shoulder of the man kneeling. They advance one step at a time, weapons at the ready, safeties off and fingers on the trigger. Rounding the corner slowly the Marines continue on deeper and deeper underground where the remaining cylons had retreated too. They would repeat the high-man low-man nearly a dozen more times. After near two more hours of combat the last cylon fell to their guns.

COMMAND CENTER LZ X-RAY

"Sir we have Admiral Keyes on the line"

"This is General Gorton go ahead sir" Said Gorton sounding tired.

"How's it going Hector?" Asked Keyes

"Sir we've gone through and checked every single building, there's no one left. All our dead are loaded up and our wounded have been evacuated to the hospital stars. We did it sir" said Gordon as he sat down

"Excellent job General, how much longer until we ex-fill?" Asked Keyes. It had been a full day since the first boots had hit the ground.

"Shouldn't be more than a few hours sir." Answered Gorton as he looked around the command post.

"Copy that, take your time General, were in no rush up here. We've got plenty of ships to deal with the cylons if they come back" Said Keyes confidently

"Roger that sir, I estimate another four hours until all of our forces are off the surface and Airborne"

"Roger that. Pass it along to the troops, job well done" Said Keyes.

"I certainly will sir, now if you'll excuse me I have something's to take care of"

"Of course general. Godspeed" Said Keyes as he cut the line.

"Marines!" Bellowed Gorton "We were beaten at home, today we kicked ass!" The marines in the tent erupted into cheers as he spoke "We showed the cylons that we would not go down without a fight. Now we've left some toasters alive, I think it only appropriate if we bathe them before we leave them" Said Gorton as he walked over to an empty ammo can and proceeded to take a dump. Several others followed suit. The can would then be taken to the cells where the enemy was being kept and dumped on to them. Payback was indeed sweet for them today.

NEBULA FIELD

The Fleet arrived twelve hours after it had left. Bringing back with it thousands of ships each. Every single ship had been searched top to bottom for tracking devices and any sort of cylon devices aboard. If found the ship wasn't used. The prisoners themselves had all been medically cleared as well by numerous checks by doctors to determine if they had been infected with any types of disease's or biological warfare agents. The prisoners wouldn't be allowed on the surface as each and every ship would be slowly and carefully be re-checked for any potential cylon sleeper agents. Only two cylon models had been on the surface, the models one and six. Once they had been cleared they would be allowed to land.

2 DAYS LATER

The fleet had begun repairs on all of the ships that had taken damage and marine and army units were slowly recovering and completing AAR's. The fighting had been intense on all of the worlds attacked except for Picon and Caprica. The attacks had beaten the cylons to a mere police force on some of the colonies. The people rescued off the surface of the prison world had all been transported down to the surface and had been fed, clothed and taken care of by fleet medics and doctors. Nearly all of their health was exceptionally bad; many had been tortured and beaten repeatedly. Many of the women raped countless times. Endless hours and days of torture had weakened them, but these people were strong. Their traumatic experiences would never be forgotten as long as they lived. However, these were the kind of people who turned those horrible and traumatic events into motivational moments. They did not quit, they refused to give up, which was why the cylons had deemed them so dangerous. They spoke out and told their stories, not all of them, but most did. They told of their sufferings and how happy they were when the first shells from the Nexus hit the surface. They told of the fear on the face of the cylons knowing their deaths were imminent at the feet of the Marines that had stood over them and slowly killed them one by one. Most saw their time as Prisoners as reason to fight harder and longer than ever before. For a select few, they had been broken, their minds shattered by the torture and ordeal. Fellow prisoners and friends cared for these people with the utmost delicacy.

HOSPITAL STAR COMFORT

Admiral Peter Corman awoke and looked around silently still thinking he was in a cell block in a prison. When he saw the Marine standing guard over the entrance to the infirmary he knew where he was. He was on a battlestar. He didn't know which one but he was on a battlestar, and he didn't care what the name was, just that he was on a battlestar again. He waved the Marine over and asked what all had happened in the last twenty four hours.

BATTLESTAR THERION REC ROOM

Captain Paige Terrence, Amy Forsen, and Lieutenants Brooke, Marissa Stas and Haley Aaron along with Lieutenants Carson, Carroll, Wilson, and Steel listened as Marine Lieutenant Jacob Stark told his account of the Mission he had been assigned to during the attack on the prison world of Athena. A lot of them smiled in disbelief and amazement at the sheer amount of weapons fire he said there was. It had been true thou. Nevertheless, it hadn't stopped the Marines advanced, despite losing over thousands of their own in doing it. They all listened and then started to talk about other things. Including the rescue of Admiral Peter Corman, which had many wondering whether he would assume command of the fleet? The group of lovers and friends had learned the true meaning of friendship over the last few months and weeks. They had endured, sacrificed and overcome everything that challenged them. They had learned how to survive with each other.

ADMIRALS QUARTERS- COMFORT

Jason Riggs was wondering the same thing, about what Corman would do after his rescue and recovery. Which doctors had told him could take months. He was glad the experienced admiral had survived and he could now rely on his experience and advice as he could with Keyes. McNamara and Keyes were on their way over with Barnes to go and see the Admiral. Riggs knew it would be an interesting conversation. Stevenson and the SECDEF were meeting with the Marines and soldiers of the ground force to give praise to their job well done. They would hold a joint meeting with the admiral at a later date; Stevenson would remain in command of the overall fleet until then, Tentaitvley they were planning to run a joint command, with Corman leading combat operations while Stevenson ran all of the administrative and logistical aspects.

The four admirals walked down the hallways of the Therion, on their way to see the Admiral who would decide the fate of their commands. First in was Keyes followed by Riggs then McNamara and Barnes who had grown very close together. They were here just to ask how the admiral was doing.

"Ah finally the Admirals come to see me" said Corman as he sat up

"Sir. How are you?" asked Keyes as he looked at the Admiral, all scared and beaten

"I'll be fine in a few months, now give me a rundown what do we have and what's our situation?" he said his voice becoming serious.

"Sir, I'm Admiral McNamara, we currently have 17 Battlestars, five of which are currently not crewed we recovered them as part of Operation Rolling Lightning, we have 38 Fast attack Frigates seven of which are currently out of action, 32 Cruisers seven of which are performing roles as training ships, 28 Destroyers, and 32 Defenders following our last major engagement with the Cylons. We got over three hundred container ships that are loaded with military equipment and gear. All of those ships are being upgraded to military specs and qualifications. We have around four million four hundred thousand survivors on around 5,000 ships, each FTL Capable; most of the survivors we got of the prison world are on the surface of the planet sir. A naturally occurring nebula protects it. FTL emergence from outside the storm is impossible without having prior knowledge of the storms interior. We do. The storm does have three natural entrances all of which are now heavily guarded by the battlestars and cruisers not assigned to combatant commands right now. Which is made up of three fleets. And a Medical Corps fleet sir" said McNamara summing up most of the situation. Each one of them explained how their ships had survived and what they had done in that time.

"Excellent job all of you. I want to see more of the way you have your commands organized but for now stick with them and current operations I want increased intelligence gathering thou. We need to know what the cylons are up to" said Corman impressed with the situation currently.

"Yes sir, we'll get right on it" they all saluted and left after nearly an hour of talking.

"How are the civilians doing?" asked Corman

"Well they've been remarkably resilient sir, they've adapted pretty well. They have a limited governmental system up and running for now to act as a base for President Roslin when the Valkyries catch up with the Galactica. Their due to part here soon sir" Said Riggs. While he wouldn't admit it to governor Parsons he was greatly impressed with the civilians and how well they had adapted to the changes.

"Excellent, who's leading the mission?" Asked Corman as he sat up more.

"Commander Branson sir, formerly my XO" Answered Admiral Riggs, rather proud of his former XO. Corman just nodded his head in approval

BATTLESTAR PEGASUS 11 WEEKS AFTER THE CYLON ATTACK

Admiral Helena Cain looked at the damage done to the world below them. They had established that it had been a prison world used by the cylons. Until from what they had ascertained Colonial troops had come smashing in and liberated the prisoners there.

"This was one hell of a battle, whoever it was they kicked some ass" said Colonel Belezen as he surveyed the damage done by the attacking Colonial troops

"Yeah it was, and I want to find whoever it was" said Cain as she walked back aboard the Raptor. She wished that she still had the Mercury and Admiral Keyes. She could have used the extra firepower.

She knew now that someone with a military force had survived. She just didn't know who it was. It had to of been a large force to have taken the cylon base here and liberate the prisoners. Her Marines had said that it was a combination of both Marine Corps and Army troops evident of the tracks in the mud and the way the attack had been carried out. With artillery fire being used heavily. They had utilized it very effectively according to her Razors.

BATTLESTAR OLYMPIC 1 WEEK AFTER THE RESCUE

Commander Sammie Tanner was glad to have survived and rescued the prisoners on the surface of Athena. The Survivors had actually taken a liking to the Battlestar Athena. Saying it ironic that a battlestar, an instrument of war. Named the same of a place used by their captors to torture, rape and attempt to break their spirit. Now they cheered when they heard the battlestars name, knowing its crew had taken it among themselves to bring vengeance and closure to the survivors of that ordeal. Many of the former prisoners had volunteered to serve in the fleet after they had healed physically. The Marines and Soldiers that had rescued them had taken to training on the surface and building up the infrastructure of the settlement. They had built defenses around the settlement in the form of machine gun emplacements and mortar pits in defensible positions throughout the settlement. They had dug trenches systematically to slow down the enemy advance if there ever was one. The people felt safe knowing the military would give their all in the event of a cylon invasion.

"Commander, all personnel being transferred have disembarked" Informed her XO Colonel Samantha Aaron

"Thank you Colonel. How's your sister doing on the Therion?"

"She's doing well. Damn almost got shot down over Virgon thou, barely missed getting hit by a missile" Said Samantha Aaron, sister to Haley Aaron aboard the Therion

"She okay?" Asked the commander with a hint of worry in her voice

"Yeah she's okay, her soon to be finance took care of her" said Aaron with a smile and gentle laugh.

"Soon to be?" asked Tanner with a raised eyebrow

"It'll happen soon don't worry, of that I have no doubt" The two women laughed at her comment and went about the rest of the day's work.

COMFORT- ADMIRAL BARNES QUARTERS

Admiral Amy Barnes was in her quarters talking with her ex-husband who had wasted no time in getting involved in the government, specifically being an aid to the governor and the council. He had come aboard to tell her of the latest talk during their last meeting. Two council members were putting forth a motion to restrict the military to defensive operations only. Patrolling the Nebula and guarding its natural entrances only. With the idea that without the cylons knowing where they were, they would be safe.

"I think you need to remind the council that they have no say in military operations. What so ever and that isn't going to change. We take orders from the official colonial Government, not you. You were set up to run the fleet and keep order. And as a base for president Roslin when the Valkyrie class battlestars catch up with her fleet. Do you understand?" said Barnes with a harsh tone, furious at her Ex-husband for his anti-military views. Which she believed stemmed from her being deployed all the time when they had been married. Their relationship had gone downhill the moment she had been promoted to Major

"So were under martial law is that it? That's interesting because I thought the admiralty was opposed to marital law? Funny how they saw one thing then do another" Evan said in response clearly angry

"Get the hell off of my ship before I have you thrown out of an airlock" she said meaning it completely.

"You wouldn't dare?" he said smiling thinking he was safe. He stood up straight and crossed his arms in a defiant stance.

"Don't test me Evan" Barnes spoke in a low voice, but the way she said it made the meaning clear.

"I am, you couldn't do that to me, our little girl" He said smirking at her as he stood even straighter.

Amy stood up, walked past him, went to the door to her quarters, and opened it before he could say a single word.

"Marines get in here!" the two Marines at the door were inside instantly, their weapons pointed at Evan. They immediately put themselves between Evan and their commander.

"Whoa, whoa okay Amy okay, stop!" he said as the Marines threw him to the ground.

"Get him up! Follow me and gag him" she said as she led the Marines to the nearest airlock. He struggled the whole way. Each time they passed crewmembers, they'd have a curious look on their faces but they all decided not to question what was happening, most having never seen Admiral Barnes lose her temper.

When they arrived at the Airlock, Evan her ex-husband was crying. She ordered the Marines to throw him in and seal the hatch. They obeyed her orders without hesitation. Then she keyed the mike

"Next time I tell you to get the hell off of my ship, you had better haul ass in doing it. I don't frak around anymore. Next time I will kill you, do you understand?" she said her voice cold as ever.

He nodded his head furiously and then she instructed the Marines to escort him to the hanger deck and off the ship and then left to go back to her quarters and contact Admiral McNamara.

THERION

Admiral Jason Riggs walked aimlessly through the halls of his battlestar. Saluting crewmembers as he passed them. He was used to this routine, it was almost tradition for him. In order for him to think, to really plan, he had to be moving and get his heart rate up. Tonight he was planning the Op to find the Galactica and the President. He would walk for hours this night

In a separate part of the ship, two couples sat in the rec room of the mighty battlestar and made small talk to pass the time.

"Why are we up so late?" Asked Captain Amy Forsen as she stretched and yawned silently. James Carson was sitting beside her reading a book.

"Because we have nothing better to do" Said Paige Terrence as she laid her head on Jacob Stark's shoulder.

"I think we should all go get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow, I have a patrol" Stated Lt. Carson as he stood up.

"I agree, let's get these two beauties to bed" replied Stark as he winked at Paige. She rolled her eyes and let out a small chuckle. The group of friends, lovers and comrades made their way to their bunks to sleep off the day and prepare for whatever tomorrow brought.

BATTLESTAR TITAN

The Battlestar Titan, the namesake of the Titan class battlestars, flew through the vast emptiness of space surrounded by four Valkyrie Mark Two battlestars, the Nertano, Serenity, Poseidon and Remsa. Their mission was to track down the Galactica fleet and bring them back. The Galactica was known to have escaped with seven other battlestars and thirteen other military vessels of unknown type and class. Commander Sean Branson was in his new quarters planning on just how to catch up to the Galactica. It would be a very tedious process, that much he was certain. The Fleet was due to depart once all of their drills, pre-training and crew integration exercises were complete.

The Titan had failed to defend Virgon during the initial attack; the ship completely shut down by the CNP virus had been helpless as she was boarded and her crew taken prisoner. The great behemoth of a warship had sat idly near the Trevor moon until the Therion had brought her back into service after purging the CNP from her computers. Now she was preparing to bring the fight back to the enemy.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Commander Sean Branson walked onto the CIC of the Battlestar Titan. He was proud of his crew and his ship, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being in command of a ship of this class and caliber. He felt honored and privileged. But at the same time, he felt saddened that it had taken the events of the past four months to make it happen. Nonetheless, he was determined to make his superiors proud

"Comms send signal to the flagship, tell him we are ready to depart!"

"Yes sir"

The task force of battlestars exited the nebula field surrounding the planet that had come to be known as home to them, as of yet it had not been named. They had been there for only three weeks but it had already been heavily developed and the beginnings of a real city were already starting to take shape. Her defenses were massive compared to the colonies. The massive shape and size of the battlestar easily dwarfed the four Valkyries next to her as she exited the Nebula and prepared to jump.

"Let's go find the Galactica" Said Branson on the CIC of the Titan as he gave the order to jump.

In unison, the five battlestars jumped to the promar sector to begin their search.

_So yes, shorter chapter but I hope it was worth it. I greatly appreciate reviews. Next chapter is already mostly written, just doing some proofreading and additions here and there. So please do review and let me know what you think? _


	3. Chapter 3

_I dont own battlestar Galactica. This story is purely for entertainment purposes._

BATTLESTAR TITAN- 13 WEEK AFTER THE FALL 4 WEEKS AFTER THE RESCUE OF THE PRISON WORLD ATHENA

It had been over three months since the fall. Commander Sean Branson watched the Dradis screen with anticipation, he was eager to accomplish his mission, hell he was eager for anything. Boredom was the worst part of any mission. He was excited to find more survivors and bring more firepower back home to the colonies to fight the cylons. His staff was currently planning on the best possible route to follow in the hopes that they would come across the Galactica and its fleet. He kept wondering, if I was Adama where would I go? The answer kept eluding him, much to his annoyance. They had only been at it a week thou so he knew they had only just begun.

The crew of the battlestar Titan was eager to be back in the fight, for some glad they were finally in it. They had been training for well over a month following the liberation of the prison moon of Athena. The fighting there had been some of the most intense ground combat seen since the first ground battles that had taken place in the days following the initial attacks. Many of the Tittan's crew had just been assigned to the ship, having just finished their training on the training cruisers. They were rookies but Branson had faith in their instructors on the training cruisers and trusted the crew to be proficient. They had been on point during their drills and now he thought it was time for their trial by fire.

The Titan class battlestar was now the flagship of the fourth fleet with the battlestars Serenity, Nertana, Poseidon and the Remsa assigned to it. The fleet all Valkyrie and one Titan class had one purpose: to go out and find the Galactica and the remains of the seventh fleet, a reserve fleet that had been in a training cycle at the time of the attack. Reserve units did not operate using the CNP, they were reserve units after all, therefore the seventh fleet hadn't been affected as most of the active duty forces had been. They had launched a massive counterattack at Virgon and Gemenon in the immediate hours after the attack. The 5th fleet and the Therion and other ships had been unable to join their counterattack due to either distance, already engaged or too heavily damaged at the time. Now they were searching for the survivors of that fleet, which had been decimated at the second battles of Virgon and Gemenon, losing over two thirds of their number. The 5th Fleet had lost Admiral Tolls with the Solstice during the first battle. Then the fleets 2IC Admiral Willington at the Picon Counterattack launched by the Therion. Now that the fleet had been reorganized many felt the traditions and legacy of the previous fleets were being lost. Admiral Keyes had stepped in and said for each ship to keep them alive within their respective ships and remember them for a later date. What he had meant by that had many people guessing.

It had been five weeks since their attack on the prison world called Athena and the colonies. The Cylon fleet had returned to find the Colonies in flames, their garrisons on the planets under relentless attacks day and night by rebels or military remnants. Their Prison world where they had sent their high profile prisoners wiped off the map and a nuclear bomb inside that had been left by the Pegasus and activated by the returning centurions when they tripped a wire and set it off. The Cylons had searched furiously for the Colonial remnants remaining in the Cyrannus system but had found none. The remnants of the fleet had left the now lifeless worlds. Instead going into the sector just opposite it. Inhabiting a new world unknown by the cylons. They didn't even send patrols in the direction of the nebula. The Colonials had no clue why but they had no intention of giving the cylons reason to change that either.

As the Fourth Fleet continued to search for the Galactica and its fleet, the Crews were anxious to see combat. Two Valkyrie's the Nertana and Otario went ahead of the fleet and scouted together deploying their raptors to each system. They would have to search for three weeks before finding an asteroid field with a destroyed cylon base inside. They found evidence the Galactica had been there by recovering remains of vipers and running their tail numbers.

NEBULA FIELD 14 WEEKS AFTER THE FALL

The Admiralty had been summoned to Cloud four to join a council meeting. It was rumored they would ask for a temporary cease of all offensive military operations. Admiral Stevenson was furious that they would think of interfering with their current operations. The rest of the admiralty was just as furious if not more so.

"…recognizing the sacrifice of our military service members and our fallen comrades who gave their all, we have made so many sacrifices, so many lost, so many dead, all so that we could live. We don't wish to hold more funerals and memorial services or exasperate the situation when it isn't needed. The war is over; the cylons don't know where we are…" The councilman was cut off by admiral Riggs

"Let me stop you right there councilman, was it not the Governor of Picon who supported a drawdown of military force because the cylons had not appeared in over forty years? This war isn't over; in fact it's only just begun. Let me tell you this. The cylons do not come near this sector. Why do you think that is?" He looked around as the council of civilian affairs stared at him. The Nebula exerts a very specific type of radiation that has an effect on cylon technology…over time. They can still destroy us; this is a very dangerous area for the cylons and for us too. Our backs are against the wall, if were discovered, we have nowhere to go. We cannot jump within the nebula. The cylons can't jump in. Theoretically at least. Now we have to take the fight to them, we can ill afford to sit on our asses and wait for them, we did that for forty years and look where we are now! This council has no authority over military decisions, whatsoever! There is no debate. There is no questioning it. It's final!" With that, the admiralty stood up and departed under shouts of protest from the room. In addition, from then on, it was decided by the Admiralty that they would no longer assist the governor's office except in critical tasks. They refused to listen to the council of former governors and Mayors. They did however insist martial law was not in effect, just that the military would not take orders from a temporary governmental system. They would wait for the Titan to return with the Galactica and the President before they decided their next moves. Most of them anyways. The five battlestars that had left with the fourth fleet had departed leaving still thirteen battlestars in the nebula, twelve assigned to one of the three combat fleets. The remaining one was not assigned and was tasked with perimeter security with the cruisers and destroyers that guarded the entrances. McNamara and Riggs would take their fleets out for four week intervals running hit and run attacks on the cylons on targets of opportunity with minimal risk. They would wage a guerilla war, and attempt to confuse the enemy as much as possible, broadcasting the IFF of destroyed battlestars and other units. Their vipers changing their tail numbers and identifying signatures. The battlestars themselves would turn off their lights that lit up the names on the flight pods.

The Marines had a different plan thou, General Gorton who had assumed overall command of the Marine Corps, following General Amos's death by heart attack, had requested the fleet to land a select number of marines back on the surface of Caprica to aid rebel forces on the surface. Admiral Keyes had approved and the 1st Battalion of the 29th had deployed, their forces using the valleys and mountain ranges near the occupied cities of Delphi and Oasis as cover to land and deploy. They made contact with Military remnants after three days and began planning for an attack on cylon command and control centers throughout the city. They had brought heavy ordnance to deliver as much firepower as possible on to the targets they choose such as mortars and mobile artillery units. They began their offensive after four days of night re-supply and reinforcement. Their number went up from one thousand nine hundred in theater to over four thousand in four days. The Colonial Army Deployed its Special Forces teams that specialized in small team tactics, specifically hit and run ambushes and Insurgency warfare. The Cylon Humanoids on Caprica began to get increasingly frustrated with the Military forces left on the planet. The Marines had started to attack the farms the Cylons had set up and begin to rescue the occupants and evacuate them on a nightly basis.

NEBULA FIELD 19 WEEKS AFTER THE FALL

The Battlestar Therion and its fleet departed the nebula after spending five weeks stationary, training and drilling. The crew was anxious to get back in the fight as everyone was in the fleet. The four battlestars, the Therion, Nexus, Olympic and Ares left, passing the defense line as they went firing a departing salvo for ceremonial purposes.

The battlestars proceeded towards the Colonies jumping into new systems and scanning each one for both cylons and resources.

Captain Paige Terrence was operating her station at the weapons console just beginning her shift. She was anxious for a Dradis contact. She wanted to fight as everyone aboard did. She had gone down to the surface with Jacob and the Gang as the Admiral called them, and heard the stories from the survivors; she had seen the fear in their eyes as they told their tales of their prison experience. It had lit a fire in the military like never before. Recruitment was astonishing; the amount of people signing up for combat arms was incredible. Hundreds of thousands were training to be Marines and soldiers, in nine months they would have a Ground force estimated at 850,000. Fleet production vessels, which had been designed for this very purpose, were producing everything a trained combat effective ground troop would need, from boots to helmet, to grenades to rifles and even tanks. Other ships produced the necessities such as soap, toilet paper, and whatever else was needed. Vipers and raptors were rolling off the production lines. The first group of viper trainees would be ready in three weeks. For Paige thou it was more personal, her mentor and father figure had been tortured relentlessly. Abused in ways she couldn't understand or imagine. Her hatred for the cylons had increased tenfold after she had gone to see him. They had spoken for about an hour after which she had cried herself to sleep in Jacob Stark's arms. She was itching for payback. Her own sister had also been down there, not tortured like Corman, but raped repeatedly. She had been tortured psychologically. With words and images meant to torment her and break her fighting spirit. The cylons had failed in that regard, while they had definitely hurt the prisoners in numerous ways, they had only increased their desire to fight and survive. That was who those people were, the fighting and surviving type. This was why the cylons had feared them so much as to separate them from the other prisoners. While the ground troops were increasing their number everyday, the fleet was struggling. They had plenty of personnel, just not the ships to man. What ships that were left over the Trevor moon were either too heavily damaged or now too heavily contested for the Marines to capture at the time of Operation Rolling Lightning. The Admiralty was planning an offensive to go in and get them but so far they hadn't put it into action. Reconnaissance of the moon now revealed a heavy cylon presence in orbit. If one thing was to be said about the cylons it was that they learned quickly.

Captain Amy Forsen was operating her station at Tactical thinking about the things that were sure to come, she like Paige and gone to the surface and seen some of the survivors. She'd been overjoyed to find one of her three sisters on the surface. Her sister had gone on to be an actress, despite her troubles as a child, bad grades and decisions; she had prospered in the entertainment industry. Her messages of hope and courage had made the cylons view her as a high value threat. She and Amy had talked for hours after they had found each other at a speaking event hosted by a former government official under the previous administration. That had been five weeks ago. Now she was back on the Therion where she belonged and ready to fight again, ready to kick some metallic ass. Her friends had the same desire, the tensions were rising between them as they were all so eager to get back in the fight.

Lieutenant Cody Carroll was in the ready room of the Fighting Knights viper squadron. Talking with his best friend Michael Wilson. They had become friends after a few double dates with Jessica and Haley. Moreover, after Haley and Michael had rescued him from his disabled viper at Caprica. Jessica had slapped him across the face for making her think he was dead. Then she had kissed him and later the two had gone back to his quarters and talked awhile about what had happened and how he had been shot down. She was a viper pilot too but she was scared for him, he understood the feeling. He would feel the same way if she was ever shot down. After their talk they slept the night away together in each other's arms, woke up the next morning, and put the events of that day behind them. They had grown closer than ever after that. They had managed so far to remain professional while on duty. Of course they all knew that the new XO Colonel Amanda Starvy was putting all of the relationship while in uniform regulations under the carpet and ignoring it. The Admiral knew it all of course and let it slide seeing as they were after all now limited in number and it was time to start having babies. He did however have a plan for those that did have kids. The mothers would become drill and flight instructors and given non-combat posts, freeing up the people that did want them, of course they would be allowed to return to the Therion if they choose to do so. The Admiral had a soft spot for his crew and anyone in uniform really. In his eyes if you wore the uniform you wore the respect and dignity that came with it. The Admiral was all about taking care of your own. He led the example the way he took care of the former CAG, Major Jessica Burton who he had spent a lot of time with lately. The rumors spread like wild fire but none had been proven. The Marines that guarded the Admiral were good at keeping their mouths shut about it too, despite the constant prodding of the crew.

Lieutenant Jacob Stark was in the ships Marine training center, drilling his men back to proficiency following their time planet side. They were getting complacent he thought. 'Time to fix that'

"Marines!" he bellowed "Fall into ranks, lets go!" The Marines all ran to fall into columns facing their commanding officer

"One of you tell me how many decks there are on this battlestar" He said as the Marines finished falling in.

" 37 sir"

"Now somebody tell me how many decks were about to go run?"

"All of them sir" answered the same Marine this time with a little less enthusiasm

"Lets go, on the double Marines! Being at your best is what will keep you alive, there is no such thing as lazy in this unit. You will not become complacent, you will not become one of these fleet paper pushers, you are gods damn Marines! The gods themselves shake in their shoes when they hear our battle hymn! Now prove to me you are frakking Marines!"

"Oorah!"

"Down in the valley, where few men walk, where no sane man goes. We go! To fight! To win!" Throughout the day the Marines would continue to run and chant several different cadences and songs as they returned to their state of readiness.

CIC  
"There was a bird!"

"There was a bird!"

"A yellow bird"

"A yellow bird!"

"On the ground!"

"On the ground!"

"I crushed its little head"

"I crushed its little head"

"And said Oh yeah!"

"And said Oh yeah!"

Admiral Jason Riggs lifted his head and cocked his head as the CIC came to a stop and stared at the glass doors Captain Paige Terrence saw her boyfriend shouting the cadence as they ran by and closed her eyes and tried not to laugh as Amy looked at her teasingly. She shook her head and mouthed "frak you!"

Amy busted out laughing as did the rest of the CIC for just a few moments. The Marines were wearing their IPFU workout uniforms. The kind that was designed for performance and not apparel. The fleet had their own design, theirs covered far more of the body than the Marines version did. The fleet usually did their PT in sweats as the ships, stations, and anchorages were all kept at a cool 72 degrees. The Marines however didn't care; it was instilled in them during their basic training not to. Performance over appeal was their motto.

The Admiral looked at Paige and she let out another small chuckle. He shook his head and ordered them all back to work. Amy worked with a smile on her face the rest of the day.

CIC BATTLESTAR THERION 19 WEEKS AFTER THE FALL

The Therion had returned to Colonial space once again. The Nexus had gone to Aerilon to scout the Cylon forces there and the Olympic had gone to the Trevor moon to see if the cylons had destroyed the Colonial ships there. They hadn't, in fact to the Olympic it looked like the cylons hadn't paid any attention to the graveyard of ships but there was an increase in sensory buoys and the Olympic had almost been detected. The report pleased Admiral Riggs greatly. If the cylons had overlooked the graveyard of colonial ships including battlestars he would make them pay very dearly for that crucial mistake. He issued several orders to the crew and then went to his quarters for the night. He wished they had been able to secure all of the vessels during Operation Rolling Lightning, but at the time, they had simply not had enough people to do it. They were stretched too thin; they had not completely believed that the Cylons had abandoned the colonies. Thus the diversionary attacks throughout the Colonies had been initiated. The Phoenix had gone about and recovered hundreds of point defense satellites and Dradis buoys to deploy around the nebula. Several cruisers and frigates had as well in an attempt to bolster the defenses around the nebula and the several moons and planets inside of it.

As the crew carried out the orders and the Olympic and Nexus returned the Admiral lay in his quarters dreaming of things that had ceased to be. He dreamed of his wife and kids now gone. Killed with the destruction of the Cloud five over Gemenon. He did not know either way if the ship had been destroyed or not, the civilian ships unlike the Military ships didn't broadcast an auto-destruct beacon. They had no way of knowing if the luxury liner had been destroyed or not. He wished he could find out some way. He had the slightest hope that maybe; just maybe it was with the Galactica. But he doubted it.

Lieutenant Haley Aaron and Michael Wilson jumped their raptor to Caprica powering down as soon as their jump was completed.

"Holy Frak" was all that Haley Aaron said as she just looked at the cylon force in front of her. Dozens of baseships covered her forward view. In total they registered fifty five at Caprica alone. With thousands of Raiders in random patrol patterns and defensive formations.. They nearly had a raider come in on them before they jumped away. They reported to the Therion after jumping back.

The two of them were scared shitless as they exited their raptor.

WAR ROOM BATTLESTAR THERION

"If the Cylons find us now, we'll have twenty baseships on us before we can jump away, were in a bad tactical situation sir" said Commander Williams of the Ares

"Even if they don't, this intelligence makes me think we should stop sending Marines down to the surface, if we have to fight this force at the Nebula we wouldn't last an hour." said Commander Tanner reviewing the info

"That's bullshit, the amount of firepower they can put into the entrances is only marginally larger than the amount we can put out. Assuming they ever find the Nebula and manage to get through our minefield and other surprises we have in store" said Riggs as he looked at the charts detailing the status of the ships.

Commander Wilson was looking at the charts as well. He saw something and looked closer.

"Lieutenant, are the cylons avoiding the debris at all?" he asked

"No sir, they maneuver around it to avoid collision but that's it, they do not alter their course sir" said the young lieutenant.

"I think the cylons are in for a world of hurt ladies and gentlemen. They made a deadly mistake in ignoring the debris fields." he said smiling as he brought up the display

"What are you talking about?" said Commander Tanner confused

Riggs got a big smile on his face after he thought about it for a while.

"We sneak in nukes, program them to activate when the cylons are closest to the debris field and as many of them as possible and then detonate. The radioactive debris will mask the nukes themselves, but the raptor pilots are gonna have to be damn quick about it or risk to much exposure. The cylons don't avoid them until the last moment. That's where we nail em. Ignorant bastards." said Riggs as he began to formulate the plan with the commanders, after three hours they had worked out a pretty good Op order, they weren't confident enough yet to issue the orders but they had a good working plan. Over the next few days they would continue to refine and go over minor details of the operation. The Raptors began to record the cylons patrol patterns. Plotting the best time to sneak in the nukes. This was a war of attrition, if they could cause the cylons damage, they were going to do it.

3 DAYS LATER

RAPTOR PATROL NEAR RAGNAR ANCHORAGE

The remains of the destroyed basestars hung silently in space, in a stable orbit of the world were the Galactica and its fleet had resupplied. There were six there. In formation, sparkling against the deep darkness of space, were twelve more baseships.

"Looks like the cylons are going out in force now" Said the ECO

"Yeah, well they had to learn one day"

"Lets get this back to the fleet, before they pick us up and send something our way"

BATTLESTAR THERION

Admiral Jason Riggs was saddened at the news that the cylons had begun beefing up their patrols. Twelve baseships were too much for their fleet of four battlestars to take on without some major advantages. Unfortunately, as it stood he had none. He was going to have to be very careful in future operations or they could find themselves in the middle of a bad fight, quickly outnumbered and outgunned.

"Lt, issue the Op orders to the pilots, have all forces prepared to attack in four hours"

"Yes sir"

The Raptor Pilots were shocked when they read the Op Order. Many of them thought the commanders had gone insane, they couldn't believe they were ordering this. The Raptors were assigned the task of smuggling the nukes into the debris field and planting them on pieces of debris and then getting out. They would coast in and then coast out firing their thrusters for a brief second only giving them just enough thrust to get out. It was risky, but worth it.

"You two had better be careful out there." Said Jessica as she hugged Haley "Good luck and Godspeed"

"Nah don't worry about that Firefly, we got it covered" said Michael fist pounding Stark and Carroll

"We'll let's go" said Star as she got aboard the Raptor.

The Raptors began their part of the mission jumping in and then powering down leaving themselves coasting in to the debris of destroyed colonial ships that now floated aimlessly around the devastated world of Caprica. The pilots were shaking with fear as they drew closer and closer, literally flying through the cylon ranks, the raiders assuming them as pieces of debris or asteroids. The raiders flew so close they rattled the windows of the raptors, each loaded with five nuclear bombs in the 10 megaton range. The fleet had begun to manufacture more nukes after the replenishment ships had got the necessary parts from the Zeus' raids of military depots and storage facilities as part of the diversionary attacks during the rescue mission on Athena.

The Raptors continued to coast in, each one watching and silently praying. They were helpless if discovered; their FTL drives weren't spooled to avoid detection. They were defenseless. It unnerved even the seasoned pilots as they continued to coast.

THERION

"Sir Raptors should have reached their targets by now, estimated time until mission complete is one hour." Said Captain Forsen as she read the mission clock. The tension in the room was evident; it felt to her like a single snap of a finger could blow them all up. She was sweating as was everyone in the room. They were nervous, not being able to do anything until the raptors planted the nukes in the debris and got out. She was glad she wasn't a pilot right now. She didn't think she could handle that kind of a mission.

"Understood. What's our status Miss Forsen?" asked Riggs wanting constant updates. He liked to be in the know. Too little information was always a bad thing in his mind.

"Sir all ships report ready to jump, missile are loaded and armed, vipers are ready to launch, pilots are in the tubes but out of their vipers for now, they'll seal the tubes and prep for launch at t-minus ten minutes sir"

"Very well" said Riggs just as nervous as her. He was hoping this worked more than anything. The cylons would take a massive hit from this. One they would be reeling from for a while.

RAPTOR 289 LT HALEY AARON

"Okay Mag Locks secure. Let's set em up and go home" she said after touching down the raptor on the alligator head of the now destroyed battlestar Columbia.

Michael touched her shoulder and said, "Take a deep breath, calm down we can do this" She nodded in reply

There were three baseships directly above them moving slowly deploying raiders in search patterns and patrols. The unknown ship they were protecting had a constant number of shuttles and transports coming and going. Nobody knew what it was but the admiral wanted it destroyed and this was a good way to do it. The ordnance of the destroyed battlestar would go up with the nuke adding to the explosive power of the ship. The ships were beaten, lifeless and heavily damaged. A piece of debris could fall off and kill them in seconds. The people on the mission thought that if the crew were still alive, they would approve of the ship being destroyed in this way, taking with it three cylon baseships and numerous raiders. A glorious death for a proud ship was what they thought. Some saw it as violating a resting ground but orders were orders and they had to be followed regardless of their opinions.

They towed the nukes behind them deep into the ship, allowing for the full extent of the explosion to take the ship and its magazines with it. Including the ships nuclear weapons which hadn't been fired during the fighting as the ship had been one of the first to be lost. The flight pods had been blown off and were floating nearby, the black scorch marks of missile hits visible even at the distance they were at. The engine pods had been split open from at least a hundred missiles impacting them. The alligator head itself was the largest piece of the ship not heavily damaged. It had a split traveling down the center, which the two raptor pilots were using to tow the nukes they had with them into the ship. The rift of the armor went down several decks. Directly above the Magazines which was perfect for their mission. They went about dodging dead crewmembers and dangerous corners or sharp pieces of metal that could pierce their flight suits and kill them. Star was towing two nukes behind her, Wilson was towing three more. They wouldn't activate for another thirty minutes, each was on a self-timer, all of them synched with each other. As the two reached the bottom of the rift they brought the nukes down slowly and set them on the deck and secured them to the deck. That was all they had to for their part of the mission. The hard part was getting out.

"Okay lets get the hell out of here" Said Haley her voice shaky.

"Yeah I agree" Said Michael as he looked up and sighed. It was going to be a long climb, and they were on the clock.

The other raptor crews all completed their task in the same amount of time each getting out within five or ten minutes of each other. In all forty two raptors had coasted in, with two hundred and ten nukes in total. They were timed to detonate when the largest numbers of cylon forces were within the blast radius of the nukes collectively. The raptors coasted out the pilots and ECO's sweating bullets the whole way, scared as hell and rattled to the core.

THERION TIME TO DETONATION 3 MINUTES

"Sir Time to nuclear detonations is three minutes and counting sir, of forty two raptors, thirty six have returned. We've detected no increase in enemy activity or change in their patrol patterns sir" said Captain Terrence nervous like everyone else.

"Very well, make sure all pilots are in the tubes. Open outer doors on all missile tubes, remove launch and warhead safeties prepare to acquire targets, weapons free at both of yours discretion." ordered Admiral Riggs speaking to both Forsen and Terrence.

"I'll take one through twenty, you take twenty one through forty?" asked Forsen

"Got it, let's do this thing" said Terrence.

It was two minutes later that the last raptor jumped in after having coasted out of cylon Dradis range. The raptor docked quickly and reported mission accomplished.

As soon as the raptor was brought down to the hanger deck, the deck crew gave the pilots water as soon as the hatch was open; some of the pilots had thrown up after having been so nervous and scared. Haley Aaron was one of them. Each of the pilots was told to sit down and just relax, their part was over.

"Hey guys, you two alright?" said Lt Cody Carroll.

"Yeah man, were alright, just a little rattled that's all" said Michael as he patted Haley on the back.

"You take care of yourself out there man. Good hunting" said Haley as she pulled herself together still rattled and scared.

"Oh you can count on it." said Carroll with a smile and a wave as he got in his viper and prepared to launch.

The fight specialist handed him his helmet and said "Give em hell sir"

CIC

"Jump in three two one" said Captain Terrence as the ship jumped just as the nuke detonated, taking thirty four of fifty baseships with them, damaging eight more. The Resurrection ship had been destroyed by the Columbia's Magazines detonating sending pieces of the ship into the middle of the resurrection ship splitting the ship in half. The basestars were caught up in the blasts of the nukes and incinerated. The four battlestars jumped in as soon as the nukes detonated guns blazing.

"Basestar echo one off the forward bow is taking severe damage, she's dead in the water sir. Two Baseships closing fast off the left bow, Nexus and Ares engaging. Olympic has engaged two heavily damaged baseships over the northern hemisphere. Basestars are putting out very little return fire sir, we caught them completely by surprise sir" said Forsen as the tactical situation changed each minute with ships being destroyed left and right. The vipers were heavily engaged with what raiders were left. Each Viper squadron assigned a specific area. Their goal to avoid a massive dogfight where the raiders would use their maneuverability against them and attempt to trick the colonials into thinking they had a bead on them and then the pilot to get smoked from behind by another raider as was common by the cylons. The Colonials used the tactic too thou. But they preferred a straight squadron to squadron fight where they almost always won. The Cylons had lost any hope of retaliation against this attack as their number of capital ships had dropped from fifty to sixteen and now to eight. The Colonial battlestars once again had overwhelmed the cylons. The ferocity of the attack had caught them off guard. Thinking their numbers would discourage an attack.

THERION CIC

"Helm left full, down on the x-axis thirty degrees. Have starboard batteries focus on baseships echo five, draw fire away from the Nexus. Their taking too much damage, have a few viper squadrons go and help them out" ordered Riggs knowing it was just a matter of time now before the baseships succumbed to their weapons fire and they could bombard the planet's surface with heavy weapons fire.

"Yes sir, dispatching three squadrons to assist the Nexus now." said Forsen as Terrence retargeted their weapons on a new baseship after destroying another one.

The battlestars continued to engage the remaining baseships as the fight drew on past ten minutes. Admiral Riggs knew the baseships at the other colonies wouldn't be long before they jumped in and attacked. He had to end this now or they would be overrun.

"Ordered the Olympic to head to the southern Hemisphere and engage the remaining basestar, dispatch additional squadrons to assist" Ordered Riggs desperate to end the battle and withdraw before enemy reinforcements arrived.

"Yes Sir" Replied Terrence as she relayed the order.

"Sir enemy fighters are massing for an attack, we have incoming, two hundred plus, detecting multiple heavy raiders as well"

"Enemy suppression barge, establish a containment field of fire, order vipers to pursue and destroy" Ordered Riggs as Forsen was already doing, anticipating her Admirals orders.

"Vipers are heavily engaged; we only had two squadrons nearby, were spread out too far sir!" Said Forsen worried about her friends.

"Enemy heavy raiders have gotten through the vipers and are closing on the flights pods sir!" Reported the Comm officer as he relayed the report from the vipers. Riggs normally stoic face now showed worry. The last thing they needed was to be boarded.

"Tell the Marines to get ready to repel boarders" Said Riggs as the two Captains looked at him, obviously scared.

"Sir we've been boarded, centurions reported in the starboard flight pod. Marine quick reaction force moving now sir" said Forsen as she looked at Paige who got a worried look on her face. She shook her head and continued to direct the ship.

"Get fire teams down there, contain the cylons." said Riggs. He was pissed now, the last thing they needed was to get boarded.

MQRF

"Let's move, team 3 on the right, check that corridor watch for contact" Yelled Lt Stark as he and his quick reaction force moved to engage the cylons.

"Net Call, Net Call this is Bravo One Nine, we are TIC I repeat we are TIC, Deck twelve frame 36 Enemy numbers unknown"

"Bravo one nine, this blue Six Roger that moving there now," said Stark running towards the gunfire directly ahead. The Marines had responded well to the boarding with fire teams moving to each airlock that had been breached. QRF Units were already mobilized and in staging areas waiting in the event something like this happened. Lieutenant Jacob Stark's team of twelve was one of them. He and his men had been through a lot together, from the first night on Picon where they had managed to secure a few side arms and plot their escape to the boarding on the Olympic and then the Prison world of Athena. They were brothers beyond blood, a bond understood only by those who had it.

"Blue six we can not hold, we are being overrun! Taking heavy casualties over"

"Six niner, we are in heavy contact, enemy forces have breached, repeat they have breached!"

"Contact the Admiral, tell him we've lost containment" Said Stark as they continued to move to the fight.

CAPRICA

The main fight had ended over Caprica, the last two baseships weren't even capable of firing anymore and were slowly being destroyed by the Battlestars Nexus and Olympic. The Cylons at the other colonies hadn't come to the fight yet. The few remaining raiders had jumped away leaving Caprica back in the hands of the colonials. Their attack had worked to near perfection, they had taken very little casualties as of yet. For the Therion they were still at risk as the cylons had broken through the Marines containment efforts and were now moving forward.

LT STARK QRF TEAM

"Move out, SSG Reyes take your fire team and get to secondary fire control, contain the Cylons headed there. We'll head for Causeway B and attempt to hold the cylons there. Move out Marines"

"Oorah!" the Fire teams departed for their objectives moving to cut the cylons off from theirs. Several dozen crewmembers had been killed by the cylons along with at least two dozen marines. The Therion had over three hundred Marines on board thou and it wouldn't be long before they were in the fight.

"Contact right" said a Marine as he fired an explosive round into the head of a centurion destroying it. Two more centurions appeared and began to fire at the exposed Marines as they dropped to one knee and laid suppressing fire for their comrades to move to cover and re-engage.

"Shanks bring up the 40!"

"Suppressing fire!"

"Man Down!"

"Medic!"

The shouts of the Marines were lost in the sounds of intense close quarters combat

CIC

"Where are the Cylons?" asked Riggs looking at a schematic of the ship

"We have four dozen reported aboard; thirteen were destroyed by Lieutenant Starks QRF and Lieutenant Terry's QRF. The rest went around their defensive perimeter and avoided the QRF force. They boarded us at the right time sir, we were too focused on the Cylon fleet and didn't see em coming" said Terrence feeling bad that they had slipped through on her watch.

"Don't worry about that right now Captain, it's not your fault. What are the cylons objectives?" asked Riggs knowing it would have been easy for the cylons to slip through in the confusion and hell of combat. He couldn't blame his crew, he could only hope the Marines would be able to contain the cylon threat.

"It appears their focused on moving aft sir. We have five reported near secondary fire control but they can't activate the fire control systems as long as I stop them from here sir. So far they haven't breached it sir. We have eight more reported near the Ships B-3 Armory. About two dozen Marines were in there getting heavier gear to combat the cylons. The fight down there is pretty intense sir. We don't have a location on the remaining twenty or sp" said Forsen as she summed up the Tactical situation aboard for the Admiral.

"We know what those ones are after. Aft Damage control. Our O2. We gotta stop them. If we don't, it's game over" said Riggs remembering the lessons learned from the last war and how the cylons had fought when they gained access to the battlestars.

"We don't have any Marines there sir" said Terrence with an exasperated tone. The tension was getting to the crew of the CIC, while they had been boarded before. The cylons had never come close to their objectives and the Marines had quickly secured the ship. This time was different. The fleet officers weren't trained for this sort of thing. None of them knew what to do in a firefight. The Marines at the door knew this. They had all noticed the looks and worried faces of the CIC crew. Many had been staring at the Marines as the time went by. The Marines continued to check and re-check their weapons with each minute.

"Marines lets move, team three on me. Team two stay here and secure the CIC" Said the Marine Guard at the door as he ran for Aft Damage control, three decks down from the CIC and four sections over. The four man fireteam left at a near dead sprint.

"Godspeed Marines" Said Riggs as he watched the four Marines run out the door. Some of them he knew wouldn't walk back in.

The rest of the CIC crew looked at the remaining twelve marines and got even more anxious

LT STARK QRF CALLSIGN BLUE SIX

"Net Call Net Call this is Blue Six reporting TIC Deck Nine, section twelve corridor C-Twelve Delta, requesting reinforcements. One three remaining enemy. one KIA over" said Lt Stark looking at one of his dead Marines and four more who were wounded bad.

"Blue Six this is Red Niner ETA your Location two minutes out" said Marine Lieutenant Steel who led a heavy combat force of thirty Marines.

"We gotta hold for two more minutes' guys. Give it all you got" he said to his seven surviving combat effective Marines not counting himself. They all rose up and fired as much as they could. Another centurion fell only to get back up and fire a burst that went high and hit above his head. He leveled his rifle and fired another burst right into its head and saw the holes appear as his tracers went right through it destroying the centurion. The remaining two in the hallway closed together and fired again, sending a dozen rounds into the Marine next to him and two more into the guy across from him killing both instantly. The remaining three dropped to reload as he did. The firing stopped as the Centurions went down the hall and up a ladder. He rose up and said to the other five surviving Marines "Let's go, Major Steel will be here for the wounded shortly" he raised his rifle as they did and went after the Cylons. Rounding corners slowly, rifles at the ready they simply followed the blood trails and bodies.

CIC

"Sir we have a report of multiple centurions having broken off from engaging our Marines near C-deck. Location now unknown. Blue Six reports they are in pursuit" said Capt. Forsen. She saw Paige's face and got worried. She was scared as was everyone in the CIC. They were not combat arms troops, they weren't rained for a situation like this, none of them were not even the Admiral. They were just fleet technicians and control officers. Tacticians and commanders not combat troops, which were what the Marines were for.

"Copy that. C Two out" said a Marine Guard at the door. "Herington take over watch outside. Smith Claymore, end of the hallway move! Admiral we got several Centurions headed this way, unknown numbers but estimated at least a dozen. Were not going to be able to hold them sir" said the Staff Sergeant somberly as he readied his weapons. Corporal Smith sprinted to the end of the hallway and set up a tripwire. He then ran back to the doors leading to the CIC and gave a thumb up. The CIC Crew continued to report on the situation and carry out orders. They all stopped when they heard firing down the hall and heard screams shortly after.

"Oh my gods" said Amy as she heard them. Her hand went to her mouth in fear. Paige Terrence froze; she didn't know if she could handle seeing a centurion again, memories of what they had done to her on Picon flashed through her mind. She started shaking instantly.

Riggs looked nervous as did the XO. The Marine however were smiling and looking pumped. The sound of the mechanical feet got closer and louder. Suddenly there was an explosion down the hallway and the Marines were out the door in a flash guns blazing.

"Get out of here!" yelled a Marine as he engaged. The CIC crew ran for the exits that werent under attack.

The room was lit up by the flashes of their guns as they fired hundreds of rounds in seconds. Their guns on full automatic. The entire crew of the CIC ducked down in fear and shear shock, crawling for the doors. The intense sounds of the gunfire having never before been seen by them. The two lead centurions had seen the trip wire and shot it. Not realizing it would trigger the Marines response and attack. The first centurion was cut down with a hailstorm of bullets, the second took cover by the bulkhead, exposing itself just enough to fire. The closest Marine was the first killed when a round struck him dead center in the head. The one behind him was hit in the chest but his Kevlar stopped it. He was knocked down but got right back up and kept firing. Another Marine went down, this one was by the glass and as he went down the rest of the bullets the centurion had fired sailed through the glass, shattering it, barely missing a weapons specialist crouching behind his station. Several got up to run but were cut down by gunfire.

"Smith, twenty meters, toasters behind the bulkhead I can't get a clear shot"

"Grenade!" Shouted Herington as he threw a fragmentation grenade. The grenade succeeded in exposing the centurion enough for the marines. The Marines all fired, shredding the metallic body of the centurion destroying it.  
"Fall back, we can't hold" Said the SSG in charge of the CIC as more centurions appeared behind the one they had just destroyed. Two down, thirteen to go.

"Fall back to the CIC"

"Running low on ammo Sarge!"

"Mikeys down!"

Suddenly the fire became less intense and it became clear the cylons were now under attack from behind. Several large explosions were heard and the Marines were baffled with a gust of air from the explosions.

"This is red-niner, we are in contact with enemy force near the CIC, situation in hand, six enemy down, four remaining. Fire teams are surrounding on all corridors. We have containment, repeat we have containment"

The Marines assigned to guard the CIC smiled and brought their guns back into the fight, silently wishing they had heavy weapons or under barrel grenade launchers. Two more centurions went down and suddenly the last two disengaged and disappeared down an access corridor. The same corridor that led to an area most of the CIC crew had fled to.

"Move!"

LT STARK QRF FORCE

The CIC crew ran by him including the admiral as he and his men continued on upwards. He saw Paige and gave her a nod to let her know he was okay despite the wound on his cheek. His Marines rounded the corner ahead of him and instantly dropped to their knees and started shooting.

"Get down!" He shouted as everyone in the hallway dropped to the ground and put their hannds over the heads. He rounded the A shaped corridor allowing himself a slight line of fire on the two remaining centurions and fired a single 30mm grenade from his under barrel that slammed into the leads cylons head and caused it to fall back onto the last remaining one. The centurion stopped firing for just a second, but it was all the Marines needed. All five of them stood up and advanced. Their fingers squeezing the trigger as they moved, riddling the centurion with armor piercing bullets. As it went down, they could see it was no longer combat effective, but they continued to fire until it was nearly unrecognizable.

"Nice shot sir" said a Marine as he made sure it was dead with a kick.

"Everybody okay?" Jacob asked as he looked around at the Fleet officers.

"Yeah I think we're good. Sitrep?" said Riggs amazed at the courage of the Marines.

"Last six were destroyed by Major Dandridge at Aft Damage Control less than a Minute ago sir, ships secured" said Lt Stark looking around the room, locking eyes with Paige his eyes saying it all. She nodded telling him she was okay. She was shaking tremendously and rattled to the core thou.

"Lets get back to the CIC" Said Riggs as he left. The rest followed him as he walked back into the dimly lit room. He stopped at the sight of the three marines who had died in their defense. He stared for a moment before he heard a Marine say "Keep your eyes ahead, well take care of them"

"Thank you Lieutenant. Miss Forsen contact the rest of the fleet, recall our vipers lets goes home" said Riggs knowing the remaining cylons wouldn't be long in coming.

"Yes sir, gladly." said Forsen as she gave the orders and the vipers came back aboard. Five minutes later the ship jumped out of the system with the rest of the fleet. She was sweating profusely and her mouth felt dry as she licked her lips. She couldn't recall a moment in her life where she had been as scared as she had been then.

HANGER DECK FOLLOWING THE JUMP

As the Vipers were brought down from the flight deck above, the pilots headed off to the squadron ready rooms to be debriefed.

"Hey heard we got boarded, everybody okay?" said James Carson as he got out of his viper after it was secure.

The chief just looked at him and shook his head and walked off. Carroll looked around and saw black scorch marks and blood stains littering the hanger.

"Blaze you okay man?" Said Header using Carroll's call sign as he walked up to him.

"Hell yeah man I'm good. You see firefly?" he asked as he secured his viper and patted him on the back

"SAR birds got her off Caprica last I heard. She got hit and went into the atmosphere. She's okay thou, they took her to sickbay a couple of minutes ago before you came in" said Carson assuring his friend she was okay.

"Frak, I'll see you later man" said Carroll as he ran off to the sickbay.

"Kids and their bullshit love" Said the chief as he shook his head. James just laughed and walked off to get some chow and wait for Amy. In all honesty he was worried; the fighting looked like it had been intense. He heard the CIC had been evacuated and that their had been some heavy fighting up there.

CIC

Amy Forsen was shaking as was Paige and nearly everyone in the CIC, except for the Marines and Riggs and the Communications officer who was doing a good job of keeping himself under control.

4 HOURS LATER

With the ship secured and the entire ordinance secured, the second shift had taken over and Paige and Amy were now off duty. Walking down the hallway to the mess hall, the events of the day caught up to them and each noticed how tired the other looked.

"We'll I can say I've definitely looked better" Said Amy as she wiped eye liner off of her cheek from where she had cried.

"Yeah me too!" Said Paige as she did the same. She suddenly had a completely new respect for the Marines after what they had done. She would make sure Jacob knew how thankful she was when she saw him again. He was still going about the ship, rechecking to make sure that all the cylons had been properly disposed of. She knew it would be awhile before she saw him.

Ten minutes later she walked into the mess hall with Amy to get some food and saw Haley and Marissa. They waved them both over.

"You guys okay?" she asked as she sat down.

"Not really. My nerves are still fried, you have no idea how close we came on that mission" Said Haley

"Yeah it got pretty close up in the CIC, we were about to die when the Marines showed up again out of nowhere" Said Amy

"Yeah I heard that, you two alright?" Asked Marissa as she ate into an apple that had been freshly grown.

"A little rattled definitely, both of us actually" Answered Paige as she took a drink.

"I'm glad were all okay, physically at least" said Amy, the others nodded in agreement.

"Where are the guys at?" Asked Paige as she looked around the room.

"Michaels on the flight deck helping out the other raptor pilots, I told him I was okay" Answered Haley looking at Marissa.

"I don't know where he is" Answered Marissa "Probably still on the flight deck with Michael and Cody and Jessica"

"Well I know Jacob wont be back for awhile so I'm gonna head off to go get some rack time." Said Paige as she stood up to go, hugging the other girls as she did

"I think all of us need that" Said Amy as she yawned "it's been a long day"

The four women all left the mess hall together, it was fortunate their personal quarters were in the same area. They continued to converse as they walked to their quarters.

FOUR HOURS LATER

Lt Jacob Stark walked into his quarters and took off his service jacket and looked around. He wondered where Paige was. His ribs hurt from the bullets that had impacted his Kevlar but other than that he was okay. He looked around at his bed and saw that his bed had someone else in it. As he walked over a small smile showed on his face. He sat down at the edge of the bed, and he stared into Paige's face. He gently moved a strand of hair off of her face and bent down to kiss her forehead. His kiss made her stir slightly so he moved back not wanting to wake her. He knew she had had a rough day. He felt sorry for her and everyone else that had been in the CIC. They had never been trained for that. It wasn't their job to fight like that. It was his and he felt responsible for them. He stood up from the bed and walked over to the shower. Removing the clothes he had worn for the past eighteen hours he stepped into the shower and allowed the warm water to wash over him. Removing the sweat and blood from his body.

In the other room Paige awoke to the sound of the water running. Looking around she noticed Jacob's jacket on the chair. As she rolled out of bed and stood up, the effects of the day hit her full on. Having only gotten three hours of sleep she was still feeling the day's effects. She considered laying back down but decided against it and instead walked over to the shower and noticed the door was cracked a tiny amount. As she opened it the rest of the way she saw Jacob poke his head around the curtain and smile at her.

"Hey there jarhead, what happened to hello?" she said as she started to undress.

He let out a small chuckle and said "Hey baby, I didn't want to wake you. I know you had a rough day"

"Not as rough as yours" She replied stepping into the shower with him and embracing him into a hug. She enjoyed the feeling of the water washing over her body as she cradled her head in his shoulder. After a few minutes she looked up at him. The look in his eyes told her everything.

"I'm so sorry that we didn't get there sooner..I..I .." He stuttered almost with tears in his eyes.

Paige was perplexed, she knew he had a different area than CIC, nothing was his fault. She stopped his stuttering with a well planted kiss and said "Shush, its okay baby don't worry about it. I'm okay that's all that matters" she buried her head into his shoulder as she let the tears fall.

"I'm QRF baby; it's our job to deal with what happened today. We let the ship down. I let you down and I'm sorry"

She grabbed his face and brought it level with hers "Don't do that to yourself, you did the best you could okay? I was scared; I was terrified actually but I'm okay. That's all that matters now" He set his head down into her shoulder and she heard him quietly sob. She stood there as they held each other, both of them crying. She noticed the bruising around his ribs.

"Jacob, what happened to your ribs?"

"I took a few rounds in the Kevlar" He saw the look in her eyes and quickly added "I'm fine it's what it was designed for. They just hurt a little. Ill be fine in a few days. I promise" As he said that he gave her a reassuring kiss for emphasis.

"Let's get out of here and go lie down and get some sleep." Said Paige as she turned the water off "We both need it" The exhaustion was clear in her eyes as it was in his. He simply nodded his reply and they stepped out and walked off to the bed. Getting dressed along the way.

INFIRMARY

Lt Cody Carroll hadn't left the infirmary in eight hours since he had landed. He had sat here in the same stool with the same expression on his face the entire time. He couldn't help but feel useless as he sat and waited for Lt Jessica Brooke to wake up from the medically induced coma she had been put in. She had been shot down over Caprica and was found by the SAR raptor unconscious. She had broke two ribs and was suffering from a collapsed lung when they had brought her in. Her condition had stabilized but she was going to be transferred to the Comfort once they got back to the Nebula. Cody knew she wasn't going to wake up for the next two days. The medics had said as much but he didn't want to leave. He knew he had to go and get some sleep thou, he was scheduled for a patrol in ten hours. But he didn't want to leave Jess's side. He felt compelled to stay. Almost like he had to. So he got up and walked to a corner of the room where there was an empty bed and gently rolled it across the room directly opposite from hers. He climbed onto the bed and laid his head down. He was asleep within moments.

ONE WEEK LATER

The Therion and the second fleet returned to the Nebula after having battled ferociously at Caprica dealing a devastating blow to the cylon forces left in the colonies. They had sent raptors ahead of them to inform the rest of the fleet of their victories.

"Captain Forsen, status?" Said Riggs as they neared the Nebula entrance passing the powered down defense satellites the Phoenix had taken from the orbit of several colonies.

"Forward observers report sighting our guardian fleet. They've initiated line of sight channel and informed them that were coming" said Captain Forsen who had just come on duty after a late night out with Jacob, Jessica and Cody. Jessica had been released from the Infirmary but wasn't allowed to return to duty due to her injuries. Paige was struggling to help her lover with his guilt over the boarding. It had been a rough week for everyone on board. Except for the Viper pilots and a few raptor pilots who hadn't been aboard to witness the boarding and the massive firefight on the hanger deck and in several of the hallways and by the CIC. The pilot's egos had alienated them to the crew who were struggling to deal with the aftermath. The tension aboard the battlestar was thick. However Paige was grateful that her small group of friends had managed to avoid it.

"Very well, send a Message to Admiral Keyes inform him of the recent developments at Caprica and tell the Venturous to take the Nexus aboard and begin repairs immediately" said Riggs. The Nexus had sustained an enormous amount of damage at the Third battle of Caprica, the third and last for the planet. The ship had lost several of its gun batteries from well-placed missiles or from Cylon kamikaze runs.

"Yes sir. Sending now sir" said Forsen as she looked at her Admiral who she noticed had started to get gray hair. She smiled as she sent the message. A few hours later they were back inside the nebula and safely behind the defense screen. Admiral Corman had assumed command of the fleet after recovering enough to do so. He had kept the fleets as they were and Made Commander Stanley a rear admiral and Keyes a Full Admiral like him. General Gorton of the Marine Corps had formed three Corps sized Units each around 60,000 Marines. General Bran of the Colonial Army had formed a five Corps army with a total of seventeen divisions. The fleet had begun to manufacture defense satellites and place them around the nebula in case the cylons should in the unlikely event manage to jump inside the nebula. The Therion and its fleet were ordered to take some shore leave, the crews would be temporarily replaced by trainees who were training to fully man and equip the other battlestars as soon as they returned from their mission to bring the Galactica back. Plus the other five that were guarding the entrance along with the defenders and frigates, the destroyers and cruisers ran active patrols throughout the system and secured resources.

HANGER DECK BATTLESTAR THERION

Captain Paige Terrence had her bag packed for a one week shore leave as did the other girls. The best part was they were taking it with the guys. As they stood around waiting for the Raptor they all conversed and talked.

"Admiral Riggs, I finally found you" said Governor Parsons as she walked over and stood by the Admiral who was looking down at the Gang of lovers, friends and comrades who had been through hell and back together. He smiled as he knew these few; brave young men and women would be going very far indeed together. He looked forward to watching them grow.

"Indeed you have Governor, what I can do for you?" asked Riggs as he shook her hand and smiled.

"I just stopped by to say that news of your attack on the Cylons at Caprica and how many baseships were destroyed as a result has made me see you were right about not staying in the nebula. I wanted to say that I'm sorry for not supporting you. The news of what your fleet did over Caprica has inspired people…including me and its raised morale considerably" she said sympathetically to the admiral. The Admiral could tell she meant it, surprising as it was.

"Apology accepted governor and I'm glad to hear about the Morale. But Im starting to wonder if I made the right call " he said as he turned to watch his troops again. "I asked a lot of my crew, and they performed admirably, especially my pilots and Marines. I think I may have asked too much of them, in their minds I was throwing away lives on a reckless gamble that we were lucky paid off."

"But in reality?" Asked the governor sensing the admiral was going somewhere.

"Look down there Governor. That gang of friends, lovers, and comrades. They're everything I love. They represent the whole ship. This crew, their the best I have ever had. They're the only ones I trust. Especially considering what I asked of them. They are true wonders. Their bravery inspires me everyday"

"I cant tell you how good it is to know how much you trust your men and women. I hope one day that you and I can work past our differences and work well together at that. I don't have any doubt anymore that were safe. And for that I want to say thank you."

"Maybe one day we can work together again" Said Riggs as he smiled and shook her hand again. She walked away down to another hanger bay where her Raptor was waiting to take her back to the surface

Admiral Jason Riggs stood there for a few more seconds and watched what he considered his children and then walked back to the CIC, to a new day, a new era and a New journey. One they would all take together.

PICON

Cavil stood on the command center of the baseship that controlled the entire cylon force in the Colonies. He was in shock, or a mechanical state of it. He couldn't think of anything to deal with the situation. The humans had deliberately targeted their resurrection ships in the colonies and destroyed them. They had lost their entire force at Caprica, half of their surviving force in the colonies. They had only a few dozen baseships that were left in the colonies. A hundred were still tasked with finding the Galactica fleet and destroying it. So far they had had no success.

"Abandon the Colonies; we can't hope to defeat the Colonials now. We wait for a time, scout, gather intelligence and strike when we have enough." he said as the Last Remaining cylons in the Colonies began to jump away, leaving the Colonies at last to rest in peace.

BATTLESTAR TITAN 27 WEEKS AFTER THE FALL

2 WEEKS AFTER DESTRUCTION OF THE RESURRECTION SHIP BY PEGASUS AND GALACTICA

"Sir Jump complete, wait, holy frak, multiple Dradis contacts, it's an entire fleet" Shouted the Tactical officer aboard the Titan as he looked up in shock

"Bring the ships about, prepare to engage, XO arm and mode all nuclear weapons" Said Commander Sean Branson commander of the expedition.

"Yes sir"

"Launch vipers"

"Sir" the communications officer sounded hesitant, "I'm receiving Colonial transponders"

"Attention unknown vessels this is the battlestar Galactica, identify yourselves or we will fire upon you"

_please do revivew. It means a lot, Im sorry for the long delay but I was sent out on a diplomatic security mission and was unable to update. The next update will be awhile too, again sorry but life isnt fair at the moment. I do hope you have enjoyed this installation. I promise more will be up soon. How soon that is I cant tell you. Again please review!_


	4. Chapter 4

_For those of you asking yes, I am a soldier, served 10 years in the United States Army, two tours in Iraq and three more in Afghanistan. I now work for a Private Security Contractor in Virginia. And please remember as june is PTSD awareness month that sometimes all a service member needs is just to have someone to be there to listen. Keep all soldiers in your hearts this month. I know far too many who struggle. A little gesture can go a long way. Enjoy the update and once again please review_

7 MONTHS AFTER THE FALL

NEBULA WORLD STILL UNAMED 10 DAYS AFTER THERION TASK FORCE'S RETURN

Captain Paige Terrence was walking along the beach of the still unnamed planet going about her two weeks of shore leave that had turned into four weeks of shore leave. She was trying to enjoy the days she had. The entire crew of the second fleet had been ordered to take shore leave following their attack at Caprica over two weeks ago. Their attack had succeeded in causing the cylon fleet massive amounts of damage and loss. During the mission the Therion had been boarded, resulting in the loss of nearly four hundred of her crew. The Therion had taken some serious damage from the boarding and the attack and had been forced to be repaired by the Venturous for two weeks. Then the rookies had come aboard for their training cycle. The Admiralty had chosen to give them some extra time off. Riggs had moved his flag to the Battlestar Olympic for the time being. Which was fine by her. Seeing a cylon centurion after her ordeal on Picon had shaken her. She felt the mission had been too much of gamble after reflecting on it these past few days with the other girls. Lt Jessica Brooke had been allowed to come down to the surface after a few days aboard the Hospital star Comfort. After she had been shot down over Caprica she had been wounded during her ejection causing one of her ribs to break and collapse her right lung. She was recovering under the watchful eyes of her boyfriend and other close friends. It would be five months before she would be allowed to return to active duty flight status. Haley Aaron has been out of it for a few days after the mission at Caprica, so had Michael but Paige couldn't blame them. Their mission had been hair rising for her and everyone. What the Admiral had ordered them to do had definitely been a little crazy. She had found her faith in the Admiral shaken after the boarding, to her it seemed like he had no regard for their lives. She got the feeling that the rest of the crew was starting to feel the same way. That worried her deeply, especially now after they had been through so much. But she knew their feelings were well founded. Especially since she felt them too. Try as she would she just couldn't shake the feeling's. She would just have to hope that the next few weeks when they got back were different and that the tension between the crew and the Air wing had abated enough during their shore leave that things would get better. As kept walking down the beach she wondered where all of the guys where. They had all gone off for a few days leaving the girls alone to have some "girl time" as they put it. They were supposed to come back tonight. Honestly she couldn't wait to see them again. It felt like when she and the group was together, everything was fine. Nothing was wrong and everything would be okay. Friends had a way of making that feeling happen.

Lt Jacob Stark was working up a sweat in the game of Pyramid. The last two days, it was all they had done. He was blowing off steam, feeling better than he had in weeks. They all were, each one of them had their own feelings and grief's to let out. The five friends had so far managed to avoid the rising tensions aboard the Therion following the attack at Caprica. They were close friends, having been through so much together in the last seven months being apart of the Therion's crew. As they were playing his mind kept wandering back to Paige. He missed her but it wouldn't be long before he got to see her again. He knew the other guys missed their girls too.

BATTLESTAR TITAN 7 MONTHS AFTER THE ATTACKS

"Attention unknown vessels this is the battlestar Galactica, identify yourselves or we will fire upon you"

In the CIC of the Titan, crew members looked up from their stations and smiled. Commander Sean Branson looked at his XO and then turned to the communications officer

"Batch me through, priority one channel, send recognition codes on fleet TAC Channel one"

"Yes sir batching it through now" Replied the comm officer with a wide grin on his face as he gave his commander the thumbs up. It had taken them only a month following the cylons communications reports that had been intercepted before they left and using anyone who had ever served under Adama but they had finally found the Galactica and its fleet of over eight hundred ships. Including nine battlestars that were now entering weapons range along with their fighter squadrons.

"This is the Battlestar Titan to the ship claiming to be the Battlestar Galactica, please respond" Said Branson as the recognition codes were sent along with his message

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CIC

Rear Admiral William Adama looked at the Dradis console and couldn't believe his eyes. An entire Battlestar group had just sent authentic recognition codes. He had thought that after the Pegasus finding them three months ago, that they would never find any more survivors. This was almost too much for him to believe. Add to that a Titan class battlestar and he knew his forces were already outmatched even with three Mercury's.

"Sir the fleet is still advancing and all civilian vessels will complete jump to escape coordinates in three minutes."

"Signal the fleet to all stop, all civilian vessels are to continue to jump." Ordered Adama, he was siding on the side of caution on this one.

TITAN

"Sir the Galactica is requesting to speak with you"

Sean picked up the wireless headset and smiled. After confirming his identity he asked for permission to board the Galactica with a small party to discuss some very important subjects. As he set the headset down he looked at his communications officer.

"Very well, all hands stand down condition one, recall our fighters; let's join the Galactica's formation" Ordered Branson overwhelmed with joy at finally finding the Galactica.

SEVERAL HOURS LATER

After rejoining the civilian fleet, the group of thirteen battlestars stood tall against the backdrop of dead space. Their hulls all battle scared and scorched. After conveying with the president, who had been extremely surprised when they had briefed her on their mission, the Fleet would begin preparations for their three month journey home. Several of the civilian ships simply couldn't hold enough fuel to make the long range jumps that the Titan fleet had used to find them. Admiral Adama wanted a full de-brief on the situation at home. To say the atmosphere aboard the civilian ships was ecstatic would have been an understatement. It was celebration in mass, aboard every vessel, even on the Titan's battlestar group. They were excited to be going home.

NEBULA FIELD 3 WEEKS AFTER THE ATTACK ON CAPRICA

The 3rd fleet under Admiral Thomas McNamara was preparing to embark on their four week deployment to attack cylon targets of opportunity. They had been at the nebula for just over three months now and had done a deployment before. However this time, they were leaving with a heavy cruiser task force assigned and the addition of the Battlestar Icarus, a Mercury class battlestar that had been recovered over the Trevor moon during Operation Rolling Lighting. Acting on intelligence gained by the 2nd fleet during their recent successful attack on Caprica they were planning an attack on Ragnar anchorage where they had spotted twelve Cylon Basestars. However they were under strict orders from the SECDEF not to engage in any long major engagements. The risk of losing vessels was too high with the amount of cylons in the colonies. The second fleet had scored a major victory but at the cost of nearly a thousand crew members, marines and pilots. The Therion had suffered the majority of those losses, losing over four hundred crew, over a hundred marines and nearly fifty pilots. While the second fleet was training new recruits, they couldn't afford to lose the trained crews that they had now. Recruitment was astonishing at the moment, but those recruits still had to be trained and drilled to standard. That took time, and they couldn't afford to lose what trained crew members that they had.

So McNamara had decided to hit small targets. Communications relays, supply stations and anything that was not heavily guarded. For most of their deployment thou they would gather intelligence for the First fleet under Admiral Keyes. The first was the heavy hitter unit. The Titan had been replaced by the Phoenix, although severely short of crew. What little crew she did have were proficient enough to do their jobs thou and they did them well. Her air wing was still currently in the process of being put together. It was estimated that in four weeks she would be combat ready again. Currently the first fleet was composed of the Acheron, Admiral Keyes flagship, the Mercury, the Universal, and the Phoenix. Once the Titan returned it was rumored she would be added to the fleet as well. But that was still up for debate among the senior admirals.

Currently all ships not deployed out of the Nebula where either practicing gunnery, doing drills or their crews were planet side on R&R. Admiral Riggs was one of them. He had been in several meetings with the Chief of staff and Admirals Corman and Keyes following the battle of Caprica. They had cautioned him against taking such risks but they had all agreed that it had been worth it. He felt guilty for the loss of so many of his crew. He knew that many were hurting emotionally following the battle. He was going to have to restore their faith in him he knew. It would be a long road unfortunately. This was just a fact he had to accept as he walked down the hallway with what felt like the weight of the worlds on his shoulders.

PLANET SIDE

The debate over what to name the planet was probably the funniest thing the group of five friends had ever seen. The two government officials, who were both drunk to the stars, were still arguing. They were currently arguing over the spelling of a word that neither of them could pronounce in their current state. To the five friends, they didn't even seem like they were arguing over the name anymore. Nobody could understand them but it was hilarious to watch.

Lt Michal Wilson was dying in laughter; the last few days had been just the thing he had needed. The boys had found a fishing spot and had caught some rather interesting fish. The way they had been cooked had been like a fish version of ambrosia to them. It had been well worth the long hike to the stream. It was almost an hour long hike but they didn't care. He looked around the bar and brought himself back to the present. He kept looking at the entrance to the bar, waiting for the girls to walk through. The girls were supposed to be meeting them here soon. He couldn't wait to see Haley again and get to spend tomorrow with her. He had missed her these last few days.

Lt Cody Carroll was thinking the same thing. The first day he had been worried about Jess and her lung but Jacob and James had reassured him by telling him Amy and Paige would watch over her and make sure she didn't hurt herself. While he and Jessica had only been together for the last five months, he was closer with her than he had been with any other woman before. He liked knowing that. He felt secure in their relationship, they had been through so much together in their short time together but it had made them closer than anything. In a way he was grateful for that. He just wished it hadn't taken what all had happened to have brought them together.

Lt Jacob Stark was putting himself back together after spending a few days with the guys. He was feeling better than he had in a long time. Now he was just excited to see Paige again. He had their afternoon planned out for tomorrow; he was planning to make it as sweet and romantic as he could.

As the girls walked into the bar all of the talking at their table ceased. Aboard an old cargo freighter there had been a shipment of dresses from one of the best dress designers in the colonies headed for the world of Athena. The girls had managed to acquire some of those dresses and their intent was clear to each of them. Stark was the first to recover and stood up to hold out the chair for Paige as she sat down. He bent over and gave her a kiss, still not knowing what to say. As each of the girls sat down, they took one look at each other and busted out laughing at their boyfriends faces. It would be a long and joyful night for all of them.

"I can't tell you how beautiful you look right now" Said Cody as Jessica smiled at him and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "How's your chest?"

"It's a lot better actually, I got a check up yesterday and the lungs closed up completely now. They said four months and ill be able to fly again" She said as she took a sip of wine.

"I can't wait for you to be back out there flying with us."

"Yeah and in the mean time, I got offered a flight instructor position planet side while I recover. I won't be flying with them but with all of my combat experience I didn't want to pass up the chance to teach someone something that could end up being the difference of them surviving a battle and dying someday because of what I teach them you know" she said looking at him with a worried look in her eyes. She was worried he might be angry at her decision because they would be a part for so long.

"Go for it babe, you'll do great. Just watch the rooks, I know my flight instructor was an attractive woman and the lot of the guys" He gave her a look and said "Well you know"

"Oh your flight instructor was attractive huh?" She said teasingly as he finished.

He smiled and lowered his head and shook it before he said "you know what I meant"

"Cody Carroll, are you jealous?" she said sarcastically with a grin. All of her previous worry was now gone.

"No I am not" He said defensively as he grabbed some more bread. Jessica gave a small chuckle and they joined the rest of the conversation as the group talked about their experiences over the past few days. The guys had been fishing; they'd worked out at the new gym that had been built. Helped the engineers set up new wooden structures for the survivors that were still coming off Caprica each day. The Marines had continued to locate and rescue survivors and resistance groups. But for the last week they had had no enemy contact. While they were continuing to advance only at night and under very strict conditions. They were still moving forward and the fact that they had no new enemy contact had everyone on edge. Not a single colonial vessel had scanned the atmosphere since the Second fleets attack. They couldn't afford to take the risk of being detected and the Marines becoming encircled and slowly killed. Currently there were over six thousand marines on the ground evacuating civilians on a near nightly basis.

Paige Terrence was radiant in her dress as she danced with the love of her life. She knew the last few weeks had been hard on him. But he seemed to be so much better in her arms now. He was laughing, smiling and seemed to be having a good time. As the night went on, she was more determined than ever to make it a great one.

Pretty much the same thing happened to each and every one of them. A night of love, laughs, lots of drinking, sex and talking. It was a night that none of them would forget. Tomorrow was a day that none of them would ever have thought imaginable as the entire planet began it celebration of the completion of the first permanent structure.

BATTLESTAR ZEUS 7 AND A HALF MONTHS AFTER THE CYLON ATTACK

The third fleet under Admiral Thomas McNamara jumped into a stable position near the outskirts of colonial space and began to launch Raptors back to the colonies to scout out the enemy. The fleet's crews were rest and excited to be back in the fight. They were anxious to fight the cylons again.

"Sir Raptors have jumped, they should report back inside of ten to fifteen hours" Reported the Tactical officer aboard the Zeus

"Understood" Replied McNamara as he let his mind wander. At thirty seven he had been a young but sharp battlestar Commander, now he was an even younger Admiral. He thought about Amy Barnes and their relationship, if you could call it that. So far they hadn't done anything to constitute it as a relationship but he could feel something was there, but he didn't know what to do about it. He told himself it was asking for trouble, but then again he hadn't gotten to where he was now without taking risks.

CAPRICA

The single Colonial raptor emerged from its FTL jump and immediately powered down her systems except for passive scanners. It was the raptors best way to avoid detection from the cylons. The pilots however detected nothing but debris. They decided to take the risk and activated their active scanners and found there wasn't a single ship over the once proud and pristine colonial world. They flew around the planet taking reconnaissance footage of any ground troops and cylon installations they could find. They found nothing but abandoned facilities. After several hours of attempting to find any cylon forces they jumped back to the fleet.

ZEUS

It was the same story from every raptor they had sent out. The colonies had been completely abandoned by the cylons. They had sent the raptors back out to even the surrounding sectors to try and find the cylons. The result was the same. Everywhere they went there was no contact. McNamara was puzzled yet at the same time cautious. He knew that it could very well be a cylon trick.

NEBULA FIELD

The Fleet returned to the nebula after just a week being deployed. The Guardian fleets reaction was instant. Coming back early meant they had made significant contact with the enemy and there were casualties. Medical frigates rushed out of the nebula entrance where they were pre-positioned. Vipers and Destroyers were flying at full speed to establish a defensive screen around the fleet. A signal from the Zeus stopped them all. The word that came back stunned them all.

PHOENIX WAR ROOM

The war room of the battlestar Phoenix was meant to accompany a large amount of people. Considering the ship was designed to function as flag ship it had to be able to. Currently every single battlestar commander and admiral was in the room. Along with the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Corman. The briefing Admiral McNamara was giving stunned them all. The Cylons were gone; they had completely abandoned the colonies. The debate that followed went on for hours. They discussed their next move, should they go after the cylons? Or maintain security around the Nebula and wait for a time. But one thing had been agreed on unanimously. They would hunt the cylons down and exterminate them. The argument was over when and how to do it. As it stood right now they didn't have the manpower to launch a decisive campaign but others argued that they had to continue to apply pressure and gather intel on the enemy. After hours of debate, the meeting was closed without a clear decision being made. The senior admirals would decide it at a later date.

NEBULA WORLD

Amy Forsen stood in the crowd and watched the monitor that had been set up in the area. The few reporters and journalist left had formed a press corps. While they were few and far in between, they were quickly training new members. The news had already leaked out that the cylons were gone. News of an offensive to go find and destroy them for good was all they were talking about. News of talk about going back to retrieve personal items was also being discussed but deemed unlikely. The group of friends all looked at each other. They didn't need to say a thing; they all knew what the other was thinking. It was going to be a long and deadly campaign, but they were gonna finish it. Each of them turned and looked out at the field of crosses that stood behind them. Each cross represented a fallen service member that had died since they had arrived here. The air around them suddenly got cold as they walked off to the large hotel that had been set up exclusively for the military. It was wooden, but sturdy and well taken care of. Tomorrow was the end of their shore leave. It had been four weeks since they had first gotten here. Four weeks that they had greatly enjoyed.

The Therion had been completely repaired and the recent graduates had all been assigned to new ships. Some on the Therion herself. As the crew got resettled, Admiral Riggs looked over the reports from the midwatch and smiled to himself. No major incidents had been reported and everything was going smoothly. He was pleased to say the least. But now they had several weeks of drills and exercises to shake off the dust that had accumulated over the last few weeks. He would give them a day or two to get settled thou before he started. His first hope was to re-establish a sense of unity among the crew. Following the mission at Caprica there had been some tension between the Air wing and those that had been aboard during the boarding. Especially between the pilots and the deck crew. The hanger deck had seen some of the most intense fighting during the boarding and over two hundred crew members had been killed as a result. Riggs was confident in his people thou and he knew that after awhile they would be alright.

Paige Terrence assumed her post in the CIC and went about recalibrating the ships systems to her preferences. While each system was the same, the user could customize the settings to allow for easier access and quicker reaction times to certain events. She knew that across from her Amy was doing the same thing. She had hoped that the tension between the crew had abated but she knew to reserve her judgment for a few days. She knew eventually the pilots would begin their cocky arrogant attitude again. It was just a matter of time before the tension was evident again. She had spoken to the XO about it and her reply was until an actual incident happened she wouldn't take any action. But once one did Paige knew things would get worse before they got better.

PLANET SIDE VIPER TRAINING FACILITY 8 MONTHS AFTER THE ATTACKS

Lieutenant Jessica Brooke walked slowly towards the tent that held her trainees. She had never been an instructor before, but she had four months before she was allowed to fly again. She was determined to teach these young kids something that could keep them alive.

The viper farm as it was called by all of the recruits had only just become operational a month ago. The first class was currently on the second stage of familiarization with their vipers. They had already gone through fleet basic before the attacks and were all traveling to their next duty station during the attack. They had been waiting for the chance to fight ever since. She was going to be in charge of teaching them melee combat tactics. There were dozens of other viper pilots like her on the ground, many had been wounded and could never fly again. Others like her who had were recovering from their injuries and waiting to return to duty. The commandant was an old retired viper flight instructor who had been traveling during the attacks. Once the infrastructure had been established he had approached the Admiralty and requested to be reinstated at his previous rank of Colonel and to be named commandant of the new viper flight school. While many of the hangers were still under construction, they were making due with drash tents and portable hangers from the fleet. His standards were high. He himself had seen what low standards brought about. He was determined that each and every one of his trainees met the maximum standard set forth by their instructors. The average viper flight school before the attacks was eight months. He was going to make it three months. Normally recruits would attend a three hour long classroom lesson, followed by a flight after month five if they were good. Most spent their time in simulators before month six and the hours were slow to accumulate. Two hours at most a week. Old flight school had been a joke; the trainees showed up at ten in the morning, did an hour of PT and then went to the classroom for an hour, took lunch and then came back for three more hours of classroom instruction. The simulators were used only after the third month. He was making it so the recruits were hitting the ground running. Currently each and every recruit was attending a new version of the fleet's basic training program. The Instructors there were tough thought Jessica as she walked to her meeting with the other instructors. That Program had been going since their second week on the planet. Essentially the DI's were following the manuals and teaching them through their own experience. It had taken a week after they first landed four months ago for them to build the facilities and ranges they would use. Two weeks after that the first recruits were in-processed and then sent to the field to be taught everything they would need to know.

The first viper trainees to arrive that day had just gotten off the bus, Jessica stood silently with her instructor hat on. Each recruit would call her "Top" until the day they graduated. Most of the instructors swarmed the recruits in what was classically called a shark attack. In a split second, the instructors had gone from being nice and welcoming to downright devilish. The recruits bags were all tossed into a pile. They were formed into ranks and were given their initial set of instructions from the SDS.

"You are not in Basic Training anymore. Let me make that clear from the start. This course will not be easy; many of you will not pass. If at any point, you begin to doubt why you are here. You will fail. I am not going to hold your little hand and guide you. I will teach you, I will give you the material. But the steps, you will have to take those on your own. If you take those steps, you will become apart of something that you have to experience in order to understand. You will be tested, in ways you never thought possible. This school is no joke" He paused as he walked up and down the ranks

"Each and every instructor here is a combat veteran; many have fought in every battle we've been in since the attacks. All of them have been wounded, they know what it takes to not only survive combat but be an effective combat leader. You will be broken down into platoons, one of the instructors you see before you will become your flight leader. Others will be known to you only as top, me….. You will call god! Is that understood?" The last part was yelled so loud the nearest recruit flinched. Each and every one of the instructors was on them in a second. Physical fitness was required to be a viper pilot. The amount of stress that was exerted on the body required it. There were weight limits, based on their height. Each and every thing they did for the next three months would be constantly corrected, watched and repeated. Their daily schedule was hectic, wake up was at 0500, and then PT for an hour followed by thirty minutes to eat. And from then until noon, they would be doing classroom work, familiarizing themselves with the inner works of the viper. Every inch of her systems would be committed to memory. They had to know how to calculate so many different things at once. Landings were practiced in simulators, Flight catapults that had been set up on the ground gave them a glimpse of what was to come after they passed their written tests. Once they got in to the simulators, the real training began.

"When you launch out of that flight tube, there is only one thing that should go through your mind: and that's the situation at hand. Nothing else matters, because at that moment, its life or death. Catapult launching from a battlestar will launch you from stationary to near combat speeds in less than three seconds. After you fire your thrusters, you need to check your engine pressure, coolant, everything on your instrument panel. You have mere seconds to do that. Then you check on your wingman. Following your flight leader, assuming your position and preparing for the opening shots. It takes anywhere from four to six minutes to engage the enemy. Vipers won't launch any farther than six minutes out from the ship. Doing so puts you at too much risk of being isolated and running out of fuel as the battle progresses. No engagement is ever fixed in one spot or motionless. Ships will constantly adjust their positions to get new firing solutions and sometimes that puts you in the crosshairs. Situational awareness is paramount at all times; you have to know where the big ships are. If you don't, you could end up inside of a battlestars flak field" Jessica spoke loud enough for each recruit to hear. They were all taking notes as she spoke; these recruits were in their first stage of combat instructions. She noticed a few of the men in the back talking and not paying attention to her. She had stopped speaking giving them time to write. As quick as a flash she was standing next to their chairs but out of their line of sight, as she stepped up behind them she started to wait. They kept talking for awhile as she stood behind them, their heads were down which was why they hadn't seen her.

"From what I heard after we get out of here most of us will be going to the Phoenix, under Admiral Keyes" Said one of the trainees

"Means well get to see some actions, that's the heavy fleet unit"

"Im more interested in getting some action with our instructor she's hot as hell" They all silently chuckled. The trainee in front of them visibly straightened. They all knew better than to warn their fellow trainees after Jessica had already seen them. The recruit in front of them straightening in her chair got all of their attention and they quickly looked for her. Jessica bent down and whispered "Looking for me?" The trainees snapped their heads forward and stared ahead. Their eyes were wide, their faces having lost all color.

"I asked you a question recruit!" She shouted in the man's ear who had said the last statement.

"No ma'am" He replied quickly

"Oh so who then?" She waited a second before continuing "Is there a frakking ghost in here?" She noticed he was starting to breathe heavily "Are you scared nugget, your almost shaking." She looked him in the eyes as she stepped in front of him "Stand tall nugget!" She shouted at him as he shot to his feet at attention.

"No ma'am I am not" He said starting to recompose himself.

"Really!" She shouted "I guess I'm going to have to fix that" She walked towards the center of the room again. She let out a small smile "Im going to put the fear of god into you son" Her face became serious as she said "So much fear that that thing you call a cock is going to shrivel up and crawl back inside you and come out your ass. Your going to wish you had never been born before tonight's over. Since nobody here decided to shut you up, and they all decided to be a buddy frakker, this session of instructions is over. Get your worthless asses outside! Fall into formation and stand by. Now!" The smoking that ensured would never be forgotten by these recruits. Less than six hundred yards from the classroom was a beach. The recruits were told to run as fast as they could towards the beach before she caught up. Once she got there, the next three hours was spent hitting the surf. Doing push ups, sit ups and leg lifts as the surf washed over their bodies. Quickly followed were leg lifts and squats. After those exercises, several logs were grabbed and they were forced to do log sit ups. Quickly following was a near dead sprint down the beach. Once they reached the end, they were told to run back. They did this another ten times before they hit the surf again. The trainees started a push up but were told to hold before coming up, the water washing over their heads as they did. They did bear crawls through the barb wired that had been set up along the beach. They switched between going on their backs and on their stomachs. Muscles felt like they were on fire, even as more and more exercises were done. After the barbed wire, Jessica had them perform platoon excercies in cadence. Cherry pickers, overhead arm claps, every possible exercise was used. This form of training while it had its advantages was meant to be a form of mass punishment. The lesson was two parts, one never to talk about your instructor, the other to always look after your fellow comrades. After they hit the surf for the sixth time, Jessica had them lay down on the sand. It was getting dark; it's a good time for a run she thought.

"Form into ranks! I want to hear a loud cadence, all the way around the base"

"That's ten miles!" Shouted a dismayed recruit

"I think I heard what sounded like a complaint" She laughed "Guess that means you'll have to run it faster" She looked at her watch "You have exactly two hours and thirty minutes to complete the run. If you fail to do so, you will hit the surf all night long until I get tired" She looked around "Now move!" The recruits took off at a run down the track that lined the base

Jessica knew that in their current shape they would finish long ahead of two hours and thirty minutes. Even with her lung the way it was, she could easily do it in under that. But she had put them through quite the ringer the last few hours so she knew a steady eight minute pace the whole way was out. Maybe nine or ten minute pace she thought. As she walked back to the instructor barracks she saw the Flight leader for the platoon she had just sent off nod to her and smile. She returned the nod and went to go and get something to eat. She had another ten weeks here and then she would be back on the Therion

BATTLESTAR THERION

The Battlestar Therion was practicing gunnery in the asteroid field that surrounded a nearby moon. The Nebula that protected the planet they now inhabited encompassed the entire solar system. Each planet was in a stable orbit, with several orbiting moons. Of the seventeen planets in the solar system, six were habitable. Of the nearly two hundred moons well over half were habitable to humans. The fleet was doing extensive surveys of the planets surfaces and moons. It had been decided that eventually they would form colonies on the other planets but for now all efforts were focused on the one world they were currently on. Its infrastructure was finally taking shape after five long months of building. Running water was now set up, a power plant was nearly complete and over three hundred permanent buildings had risen. The Nebula field had only three natural entrances, but the inside was almost like a spider web of crushing currents and deadly pulses of radiations that traveled inside the gas. It made any FTL emergence inside the nebula extremely risky, if not almost suicidal. The raptors of the fleet had mapped out these currents and knew every safe jump spot inside the nebula. A single dradis buoy was at each one of them. Defense satellites formed a massive ring around the buoy. The defenses that had been built around the Colony rivaled that of Picon's before the fall. Minefields littered the space inside the nebula in every direction. The Colonials felt safe inside the nebula. There were large pockets of space where there was no danger however, but these large areas was where the colonial fleet's ships were. Including the Therion whose sensors were powered to their maximum effective range, covering an area nearly three times that of a normal battlestars dradis range.

Amy Forsen was manning her station at the dradis console as their training cycle continued. It had been eight months since the attacks and she was doing well. Recently she and James had talked about starting a family. The idea struck a nerve in her; it scared her to be honest. She didn't know if she could handle that yet. She shook her head and told herself to focus on the job at hand.

Lt Cody Carroll was bored as he flew patrol around the nebula. He missed Jessica. The last month without her had been rough. He'd sent her letters and they had all been delivered. She had written back but not as much as he had wrote. He found himself thinking things like that a lot recently. It worried him that he was thinking more of what she wasn't telling him than what he already knew. He missed her more than she would know. The time apart was killing him.

Lt Jacob Stark was sweating profusely as he and his Marines continued to drill. The week they had been back had been spent doing nothing but performance drills. The amount of time they had spent on the firing range was record breaking. He was pushing them hard he knew but he was determined that he wouldn't let any boarder near the CIC ever again. His Marines were of the same opinion. There was no shortage of motivation in the room as they continued to hone their skills.

Lt Jessica Brooke however was having that problem as she continued to drill the trainees in proper viper maintenance. They were getting bored as she went over the material. As she turned on the projector she waited for the video to start playing and then she let her mind wander. At first she thought of her brother aboard the battlestar Zeus, he was a marine. Then she thought of Cody and she closed her eyes and let a smile form as she did. She missed him, while she didn't have the time to write nearly as much as she wanted to, she still wrote as much as she could. In the last letter she had given Cody the looks of what an average day was like, hoping that he understood why she wasn't writing as much. To her it felt like time was going by so slow, she just couldn't wait to get back to the Therion.

Lt James Carson was in the pilot's ready room playing cards waiting for Amy to get off duty. He was bored, almost everyone on the ship was. They were doing milk runs for the civvies mostly. Mapping out the system for the civilian ships. He was bored to death of it, but the second fleet wasn't due to deploy again for six weeks. The third fleet had come back two weeks early; they had gone back out a week later. Only to gather intelligence and launch a massive rescue operation that was currently still under way. It was rumored they would deploy soon to provide security over Caprica while they evacuated some of the survivors they had been able to find. They didn't even know the full number yet. He just hoped they would get the chance to go and help.

WAR ROOM BATTLESTAR PHOENIX

"With the cylon withdraw we've been able to land on nearly all of the colonies and locate survivors. Now were continuing to follow protocol of course. Each and every person is searched before they're allowed to enter the nebula. We only know of three cylon agents thus far, but we know there's more than that out there. So were taking additional precautions. All of the current survivors are being redirected to the comfort and other hospital stars. So far we have identified and confirmed at least another two million survivors which will put our total population at five million seven hundred thousand. But we can expect a sharp increase over the next few months. Id say by at least 750,000 from what I've heard from Admiral Barnes" Spoke Admiral Ray Stevenson as he summed up things for the other joint chiefs

"That's a lot of babies"

"Well I know where I won't be going anytime soon" Said General Gorton. The assembled group chuckled.

"I can face cylons in combat, survive nuclear bombs. But something about a baby scares the hell out of me" He shook his head "Bless their souls" Said Stevenson. The others all just nodded in agreement and laughter.

"So when are we sending out the second fleet to assist in security operations for the evacuations?"

"The end of next week, it's our guess that were going to find a lot more than just two million survivors out there" Said Keyes

"Well we need to get them out of there before the cylons come back" Said Corman as he looked down at the table

"You really think they will?" Asked Gorton

"Oh im more than sure they will" Corman's face got dark as he spoke "It's what id do if I were them"

"Until they do, we need to get as many people off the surface as we can"

CAPRICA FOUR DAYS LATER

Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion 29th Marine Infantry Regiment was advancing in up armored Humvees when the lead gunner shouted to stop. In front of them was a locked gate. As the unit dismounted they suddenly found themselves surrounded by nearly a hundred well armed individuals. The Marines however kept their guns down, but at the ready the company commander spoke loud enough for all of them to hear

"Colonial Marines were not the bad guys. Were to take you people to safety, what's your name son?" Said the middle aged man from Picon

"Samuel T Anders" Replied the man as he and the rest of his men lowered their weapons and smiled

The Marine smiled and shook his hand. The Lt in the Humvee radioed for extract from the air.

In the northern hemisphere of the planet, another unit of Colonial Marines advanced up a ridgeline and came across one of the most massive POW camps they had ever seen. The guard towers were empty as was nearly every building insight. As they blew open the gates and marched in they saw people emerge from the bunkers that had been built into the ground. Hundreds began to pour out and surround the marines. The Marines were lost; they didn't know what to do. They were beyond shocked at the Prisoners conditions. Many looked like they hadn't eaten in months. Ribcages showed eyes were sunken into their sockets. It was an almost unbearable scene for the Marines as the now liberated prisoners hugged and kissed them. One Marine snapped out of his trance and started running

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" reaching the Humvee that had been driven in to the camp he got on the radio "Echo One sierra this is Foxtrot Two Seven, I need all available personnel to my position, I am reporting Enemy POW camp. Number unknown but extremely high over"

After an hour more units arrived on the scene and had the exact same reaction. It was horror to them as they walked in the gates and began to assist. Raptors that flew over the camp estimated it to be in the hundreds of thousands if not more. Soon the skies were filled with raptors from almost every ship in orbit.

NEBULA WORLD 2 DAYS LATER

Every single ship that could fly was being mustered to the relief effort. Ships were being stocked with food, doctors were cramming aboard the medical frigates and hospital stars as they left the nebula headed to Caprica. The Joint Chiefs estimated that nearly thirty million people were inside this camp. It was beyond imperative that they get them off the surface to a safe location where they could be screened for any cylons, or tracking beacons and then sent to the surface of the now colonized world for treatment and rehabilitation. Of the surviving twelve battlestars, nine of them were now at Caprica. Including the Therion, to say things were chaotic was an understatement. The Admiralty had made the decision to go and get as many ships from the Trevor moon as possible including the remaining colonial warships. Over seven thousand ships would be recovered. But it was going to be costly for the Marines as centurions were sure to be waiting for them. The Marines that had been training on the surface were screaming for combat. The Joint Chiefs were about to give it to them.

Over twenty eight thousand Marines were gearing up to board each and every ship near the Trevor moon.

Lieutenant Jacob Starks forty six man platoon was one of them, they were going to board the Battlestar Colossus, the last surviving Titan Class Battlestar. Nearly seven hundred Marines would join them in re-capturing the once proud warship. As Stark looked out across the shuttle at his men, he felt confident in their abilities and skills. They were all good men, and he had drilled them hard the last two months. They were ready for this. It was time to prove themselves again.

As more and more civilian ships took off past the sentry's to the planets surface, each and every colonial military vessel became a hotly contested piece of metal. The Marines reported heavier resistance than they had expected. It appeared the cylons had doubled the centurion presence on the ships. They learned quickly. Thought Riggs as his ship continued to provide a security perimeter.

Admiral Jason Riggs looked at the Dradis screen with worry. They were spread way too thin trying to get so many people off world so quickly. They had nearly the entire fleet here. One Hundred and seventy combat ready ships. But there were well over ten thousand civilian ships in the sky, each either headed to the Nebula world, or they were landing to pick up survivors. Vipers were flying CAP all around trying to establish a limited protective screen as operations continued. But they all knew it was just a matter of time before fatigued started showing. In two days they had evacuated well over four million people off the surface, it was expected that operations would continue for another month.

Lt Cody Carroll brought his viper around the debris of the destroyed cylon basestar and swung over the arm with his wingman following closely behind him. They were searching for any dormant raiders or stealth ships using mark one eyeball. They couldn't trust their scanners in the debris field. There was too much of it, and residual radiation from the nukes that the Therion had used blinded their sensors. It had all been worth it he thought as they continued to fly around the debris field. There were so many survivors on the surface, and he was determined to end their time in hell. He and his wing man along with their squadron would continue to fly for another six hours.

NEBULA WORLD

It was chaos on the streets as ships landed, depositing thousands of hurt, and sick colonials. Many were simply just too shell shocked to even notice when people talked to them. They just moved with the crowd even as dozens of doctors and volunteers told them what to do. They were all given a fresh shower, while they showered; their clothes were washed and returned. The Colonial army units that weren't on Caprica helping in the evacuation were building tents and structures by the thousands. Food supplies were quickly running out even as their production and agro ships ramped up to help. They were going to have a food shortage until the new crops came in. But they had planted for the anticipation of having more survivors arrive, although not in these numbers they estimated that they would still have enough to feed everyone on strict rations. There was plenty of wildlife for them to hunt and gather to feed everyone. The Marines and Army would be busy for the next two months doing just that. It was inevitable that not every prisoner would survive. Many were simply walking dead. Their bodies were just too far gone to recover from the effects of their ordeal. Everything was done to make them as comfortable as possible as the survivors kept coming. The volunteers had ten minutes in between each group that landed. They worked eight hours shifts, the same shifts each day. Nearly everyone who wasn't pregnant, recovering from injuries or farming was helping out. Literally three million colonials were helping feed, clothe and care for thirty two million prisoners. Some were better off than others while some were walking dead. It was heart breaking and it only fueled their rage and hatred for the cylons.

Captain Paige Terrence was thinking of her sister, who she knew had gone to help. She was worried about her having flashbacks of her time on the prison world of Athena and having a breakdown. Her sister had never been the fighting type. But she was smart, incredibly so. Her sister was a teacher at Delphi University before the attacks. Before the attacks they hadn't been close at all. She had been disappointed in her for going into the fleet. After they had found her on Athena it was almost a complete flip flop. She had signed up but wasn't due to report for training for another month. Paige was surprised to be honest. Amazed even. Every now and then, between relaying reports to the Admiral and the Vipers she would think about Jacob and his Marines. The whole ship had an entirely new respect for the Marines after what they had done to protect them during the boarding. She was one of them. She forced herself to focus as more and more ships lifted off from the surface. Their original estimate had been wrong. The revised estimate was fourteen days until completion of the evacuation. The Joint Chiefs were worried that the cylons would show up again while they were stuck on the surface.

BATTLESTAR TITAN

"Order batteries twelve through twenty to shift to salvo fire, commence firing on echo one one" Shouted Commander Sean Branson as the Battlestar Titan rotated on its central axis and brought her main gun batteries to bare on another cylon baseship. Their fleet of twelve battlestars was having a field day. They had jumped in on a cylon fleet and caught them completely by surprise. The attack had been ordered by the president and all twelve battlestars had attacked the twelve cylon basestars that were patrolling just a few jumps away from the colonies. They were deep in cylon controlled space but they were ten jumps away from the Colonies. Eleven jumps away from the nebula field. In two days they would be home. The Cruiser Aphrodite had been sent ahead of the fleet to inform them that they were coming home.

The Galactica and Pegasus teamed up on two of the baseships as the Titan took on three more with the Night Flight and Erasmus. The Battlestar Poseidon a Kronus class battlestar was taking on a single basestar on her own as the remaining baseships succumbed to the ferocious amount of weapons fire directed at them. This would be a clear victory for the Colonials and a much needed boost to moral.

CYLON COMMAND BASESTAR TWO HOURS AFTER CONTACT WITH THE GALACTICA FLEET

"They're Back! The titan found them and brought them back to the colonies" Said a six with a worried look on her face

"But this could work to our advantage" Said one

"How?" asked a four

"Think about it, we have three hundred baseships scouring the stars looking for the Galactica fleet, now they're back here, with the fifth fleet and the other survivors" He looked around at them and smiled. "We just have to find their base and launch a well coordinated attack. They're all copped up into a nice little nest egg now" He smiled as he finished talking. The others looked at him and smiled.

CAPRICA

As the evacuations continued into their eleventh day the unexpected occurred.

"Dradis Contact, unknown contact bearing seven one niner, coram seven three five, they're launching fighters" Shouted Paige Terrence aboard the Therion as her heart started to race and the Adrenaline surged into her bloodstream, opening her pupils and prepping her muscles for action.

"Action Stations, action stations set condition one, repeat set Condition one, this is not a drill repeat this is not a drill" Said Captain Amy Forsen as she sounded the alarm even without the order from Riggs. He looked at her for a second before turning. The communication officer was already ahead of him thou and reported vipers were scrambling to intercept.

"Well damn, bring the ship about and prepare to engage" he said smiling, he had trained them well. "Contact the Acheron and Phoenix tell them to form up on us and prepare to assist" Ordered Riggs as the Therion Sped towards the unknown contact.

"Wait sir, I've receiving colonial recognition codes, it's the cruiser Aphrodite." Said Paige with a confused look on her face

"Receiving message sir" Said the comm officer "On speaker"

"This is the colonial Cruiser Aphrodite, sierra one seven niner authenticate, stand by to receive message from Commander Branson: Mission Accomplished, Galactica located, fleet shall be at Caprica in two days. All units Be advised, Colonial units are attacking cylon fleet at Zero seven fifty this day. Enemy strength at 12 repeat One two basestars, Anticipated outcome is colonial victory. Fleet of 879 Civilian ships are inbound, Rendezvous coordinates One Alpha will be used as planned. Over"

Aboard the Battlestar Therion, Admiral Jason Riggs slammed his fist down into the plotting table. "The Galactica is attacking the cylons. We know they're out there. It's only a matter of time now" Riggs looked at the dradis monitor. They still had almost three million people left to evacuate from the surface. They wouldn't be done for another three days. "Get me the Phoenix and Admiral Keyes" Paige made the connection and waited

"Admiral did you hear that transmission?" Asked Riggs as he studied the monitor

"Yes I did, we have a problem" Keyes' voice was low but dark "We may have to make a very hard choice Riggs"

"Sir we can't just abandon all of those people down there" Riggs face was a scowl, the thought of abandoning those people to their fates was too much for him.

"Admiral, we have twenty seven million people at the Nebula, and if the Cylons show up now we'd suffer heavy losses trying to protect the civilians. Were spread too thin. And no, we can't bring the other ships online we don't have the crews for them to be combat effective. We'd just be wasting valuable hulls that we can't afford to replace" The Admiral paused "I don't want to do this Riggs but if the cylons show up everyone jumps out. No delays, and that's a direct order"

"Acknowledged sir" Riggs severed the line by slamming the receiver down into its holster. "Order all evacuation ships to cram as many people on board as they can women and children first. Fill each ship up to its maximum capacity. We have to save as many as we can"

"Yes sir" Said Forsen as she relayed the orders to the fleet.

GALACTICA FLEET

The fleet was preparing for the third to last jump back to the colonies. It had been two days now since they had destroyed the twelve cylon basestars. They had spotted a few raider patrols but other than that they had had no problems continuing on back to colonial space. Admiral Adama had sent out Raptor probes to the colonies and they reported a massive evacuation underway at Caprica, nearly seven thousand ships were in orbit of the former capital. Adama intended to take all the battlestars there to assist in security operations while the rest of the fleet preceded to the rendezvous coordinates with the heavy cruisers and destroyers as escort. It would be another eight hours before they arrived at Caprica. He was determined to get there as quick as possible, he knew the cylons were hot on their tails.

CAPRICA

The Admiralty was getting worried. Barnes reported that the Medical Corps was beyond overwhelmed; they simply couldn't keep up with the amount of injured. Almost all of them were suffering from severe malnutrition and dehydration. The cylons had abandoned the colonies seven weeks ago. For five weeks the prisoners had survived off of what remained of the cylon food stores. The Marines had found them two days after it had ran out. For months they had been given meager meals, barely enough to sustain them at all. It was going to be a long road to recovery for all of them. Of the twenty five million recovered survivors, nineteen million were listed as Cat-Alpha. The most critical medical condition that was available. If the Galactica and its fleet came back today, the Admiralty had no choice they would have to pull the plug. The cylons were sure to be following the Galactica. The fleet at Caprica was to spread out and too tempting of a target for the Cylons to ignore for long. They were rushing to evacuate as many people as they could but they were just running out of time.

THERION VFW 127 PATROL OVER THE NORTHER HEMISPHERE

It was an area of the planet where their dradis actually worked. It was cleared of debris and offered no limitations to their scanners. Viper fighter wing 127 was patrolling this large area, providing security for the evacuation transports as they ferried rescued POW's to the safety of the nebula. Lieutenant Cody Carroll was anxiously awaiting a contact. The word had gotten out that they were racing against the clock. The Cylons were chasing the Galactica and its fleet, due to arrive back today. The tension was thick as everyone knew a fight was coming. It was only a matter of time. Cody hated these moments, when you knew contact was inevitable but all you could do was wait for it to come. It was dangerous to the pilots who weren't flying at the moment. They got antsy quick fast and in a hurry. He was snapped back to reality when the mic in his helmet blared to life

"Contact! Single Cylon Raider bearing two seven eight coram one niner five, he's right on top of us"

"All Vipers weapons free, engage hostile!"

"Header rolling in!"

"Tailgate weapons hot"

"This is fireball weapons hot, target acquired firing"

"Butterfly engaging"

THERION

"Frak" Said Colonel Amanda Starvy as the voice of the pilots sounded over the speakers. It had all happened so quickly. It was almost complete silence in the CIC one moment and the next the sounds of combat filled the room. "Actions stations set condition one and recall all vipers."

"…this is fireball, target has evaded, maneuvering for another shot"

"….Two more raiders just jumped in"

"….Im hit! Arghh" The voice crackled out and died. The CIC was silent; there was nothing they could do now. It was all up to the pilots

"….splash one"

"….He's in my kill slot, I can't shake him" Rounds were heard being fired

"….I got him header your clear. Splash two"

"….remaining raiders coming about"

"…Box him in, establish a containment zone"

"…Got him, firing!" The rounds were heard again as the viper fired. "…Splashed him"

"….All vipers were clear, reform and standby for instructions"

Admiral Jason Riggs walked on to the bridge at that exact moment as the last cylon was destroyed. The CIC crew looked at him, each and every one of their faces horrified. They all knew what was coming. The Admiral sighed heavily and walked over to the table.

"Patch me through to all ships, priority one channel" Ordered Riggs as he picked up the wireless set. Amy hesitated, unable to move. "Now Captain!" snapped the Admiral

"Yes sir" She pressed the few buttons and nodded as a tear ran down her cheek. Nearly every person in the CIC hung their heads as the Admiral spoke. "All ships this is the flagship, we have enemy contact. All ships are ordered to complete their runs and proceed to jump to the rendezvous coordinates immediately. Any ship not in atmosphere is to abort mission and return home. Any ship that disobeys orders will be considered as belligerent and treated as an enemy unit. All ships are to be clear of evacuation zone in ten minutes. All ships will clear Caprica airspace in twenty minutes" Riggs sat the headset down and turned to the weapons officer "Arm and mode nuclear weapons, target one through three on the POW Camp. All remaining nukes are to standby to fire on the cylons when they show up"

The weapons officer was stunned. He froze as Riggs looked at him. It had been debated by the Admiralty for nearly three hours before they had decided. The people on the ground had suffered enough, if they couldn't get them off the surface, then they would kill them to prevent them from falling back into cylon hands.

"Do it son"

The weapons officer took a deep breath and nodded his head. Paige stared in horror at the Admiral as did everyone else. The Admiral hung his head and sighed deeply. He didn't like having to give that order, but he couldn't let all of these people continue to suffer any more than they already had. At least this way it would be painless. He knew he was trying to rationalize what they were doing, find some way to make it seem like the right thing to do. But when you got down to it the truth was that they were about to nuke over a million people, a million of their own people who three minutes ago had been hailing them as their saviors. Riggs bent over the nav table and rubbed his forehead hard. This was going to haunt him forever. He didn't know if he could actually order it to be done.

PHOENIX

Admiral Scott Keyes stood silently in the CIC; his face was a mixture of emotions. He was deeply conflicted about what they had to do. He knew they couldn't defend the fleet that was here now, it just wasn't possible. Too many ships were flying, moving way too fast to establish any type of a defensive perimeter. They couldn't afford to fight the cylons with so few military ships that were spread too far and too thin. They just didn't have the firepower or ships. Although the last part wasn't as true. They had recovered well over four hundred other combat vessels at the Trevor moon, but manpower came into play once again. They had no where near the crews left to man those ships, much less make them combat capable.

"Sir we have multiple new contacts on sensors, reading Colonial IFF, It's the Titan and Galactica fleet, thirteen battlestars sir"

Keyes eyes shot open and his jaw dropped, they had just ordered the evacuation after the raider had been destroyed. But now with Galactica and her fleet, they had a sizable force that could provide enough security. Just enough for them to hold off the cylons long enough to get their people off the ground.

"Order all ships to return to previous assignments, get our people out of there"

"Sir half of the civilan ships have already left, what few are still here are loaded to the brim with people sir, we have nothing left sir" Said the Ships communications officer

Keyes looked down in shock. "Order all remaining ships to launch raptors and shuttles to the surface and get as many people as possible. We leave in thirty minutes" The air of the CIC was thick; people were sweating despite the cool air and constant venting of excess humidity.

CAPRICA POW CAMP

The some one million survivors looked up at the sky as hundreds of raptors and shuttles descended on them. Those that could walk were told to come immediately to the raptors to distribute aid to those that couldn't. Some came carrying others, some came running, while others walked calmly to the ships. Not a word was spoken by the raptor crews as they loaded up their ships with as many people as they could.

Lieutenant Haley Aaron was in tears as she looked at the nearly two dozen people who had lined up by her Raptor. First she asked for anyone of a military background, then police or government. After three people got on, she asked for any children. There were none, and then she asked for any women. Four came forward. All relatively young and she had no doubt had been attractive before their time as prisoners. Very few if any above the age of fifty had survived the camp she had noticed during her previous runs. Now came the hard part. Haley didn't think she could bring herself to speak as she stood on the raptors wing and gripped her sidearm. "The Cylons are coming back. We don't have the Military forces left to provide security for the rest of the evacuation." The people started to murmur and look around, some looked at her threateningly. "The gates here are open, we advise all civilians to scatter, and Marines are still on the surface in other areas aiding resistance groups and insurgencies. Find them and we will get you of here. However this camp will be destroyed, We will not let it stand and be used to torture any colonials any longer. In thirty seven minutes a nuclear warhead will impact the center of this place and turn it into dust. Anyone remaining here will be killed. If you can get two miles away and take significant cover you should be okay. We are giving you the option." As she turned to walk away she saw many collapse to the ground and cry as her raptor powered up and the hatch closed. She was sobbing by the time she sat in the copilots seat. By the time she was starting to lift off, she noticed a young man pick up a rock and throw it at her. He was crying even as he picked up more and threw them. As she gained altitude she noticed many raptors had cracked windows.

THIRTY ONE MINUTES LATER

The time had passed and all of their raptors were now off of the surface of the planet. What few people they had managed to rescue were now safely aboard the battlestars. Aboard the Galactica William Adama was fuming, but he couldn't argue with the logic of any of it. He knew what they had to do, he just wish they didn't have to. Every single member of the fleet had the same feeling as the majority of the battlestars left the space around Caprica. All that remained behind was the Galactica, the Therion and the Phoenix. The three battlestars were in a wedge formation slowly making their way away from Caprica. On the port side of the Therion a single missile tube opened and fired. The missile streaked into the atmosphere at exactly the right angle to prevent it from burning up on re-entry. As it sped towards its target the three battlestars jumped away. In their wake was a single mushroom cloud on the surface.

Aboard the battlestar Therion the crew was in a state of horror. In the CIC Paige Terrence stared at her commanding officer with daggers. She understood the reasons, but she didn't have to agree with them. She hated it. As she looked down at the dradis as the ships continued to blink away heading back to the nebula. They were at the rendezvous with ships from the Galactica fleet being searched for tracking devices. They had been at it for nearly three hours now. Amy she noticed had cried after their jump, she had almost cried as well but had managed to hold it in. She looked down at the dradis screen and counted less than two hundred ships left. The Marines had found a cylon agent aboard one of the ships that had been with the Galactica fleet. He was found with a remote transmitter that sent out a small pulse every other hour that was nearly undetectable except on a specific frequency. What worried her was that they didn't know if he had managed to transmit or not while they had been here. But she felt secure with the Titan and the Phoenix along with the eight other battlestars here. She knew they could put up a fight if they had to. She looked out across the CIC and noticed a lot of people were hanging their heads. She couldn't blame them. She was feeling so much guilt over what they had done she doubted she would ever sleep a full night again.

"Captain Terrence, isolate sector twelve and run a full system scan on that sector" Said the XO as she looked at the dradis, Riggs looked up at the dradis and shrugged his shoulders at her.

"Yes ma'am" She wondered what the xo was talking about. Then she noticed it too. There was a wide open space of complete nothing. Which normally would have been fine if not for the amount of asteroids in that area. She knew what it was almost instantly, but she was hoping it wasn't. As she dialed up the Therion's sensors, Amy, having caught on to what it was started to order a nearby cruiser to go and investigate. As Paige turned on the Therion enhanced dradis package, which normally wasn't used because of the power requirements, the Dradis suddenly became filled with red dots in the area. Each changed from unknown to Cylon Basestar in less than a second. Amy was one second ahead of her and sounded action stations as she radioed the flight deck to launch alert fighters and made all of the other ships aware of the incoming threat.

The Cruiser Aphrodite instantly began firing her main batteries as soon as the Therion broadcasted their telemetry to all other ships. One by one almost thirty cylon basestars appeared from behind the large asteroid. The eleven Colonial battlestars and the thirty one Heavy cruisers moved to intercept as the Civilians began to jump away rapidly. In five minutes they would all be gone. That was how long they had to hold the cylons off.

As the Therion moved ahead of the fleet, with her enhanced dradis package already activated, Riggs decided to jam the cylons dradis by blinding it with theirs. As the energizer that powered the dradis package ramped up to a hundred, they flooded each and every Spectrum with massive amounts of what was commonly called "White Noise". The only downside was that it affected their sensors as well. But it worked as the cylons stopped advancing. Without Dradis, they were completely blind. The battlestars could use their forward cameras to maneuver. While it wasn't very effective, they could still do it. As the Colonials closed the distance, the vipers and raiders engaged

Lt Cody Carroll lined up his viper for a devastating salvo on a cylon raider as his wingman covered him. They rolled their vipers right as the Cylon blew up from the concentrated burst. As he and his wingman maneuvered into the main fight, he picked off another raider that was bearing down on a viper. "lets light em up, tailgate!"

"You got it fireball, im on your six"

As the Battlestars entered the engagement zone, Admiral Jason Riggs looked at his XO and said "Were in for a tough fight today" Her only reply was to nod as the main forward batteries fired at the lead baseship and the main battle began.

_Okay, please review and let me know how you like the story so far. The Next Chapter will focus on the New Government and the military reorganization. Once again, reviews are appreciated_


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